Taj Weekes & Adowa

Release: June 3rd 2008

Taj Weekes & Adowa present a brand new experience in classic roots reggae. With wry trenchant lyrics, a haunting dusky quiver in his voice and the knock-down sound of his band Adowa, Taj has managed to weave a rare social consciousness with an unforgettable reggae groove.

Album review by: Jen Klee
Taj Weekes & Adowa make me forget I'm sitting in Poughkeepsie, New York, too lazy to walk the dog because it's freezing out. They have a great, almost second wave ska/reggae sound going on. None of this 'reggaetone' shit either, straight back to more of the roots of reggae actual sound. There's some electronic instruments in there though, like some sort of overtly electronic bass (no, jackass, I don't mean a regular electric bass) in 'Orphans Cry' but it's done very subtly so that it's not glaring but rather fits in with the rest of the piece.

For the white kids, this music is definitely cool enough to skank to. Or to smoke copious amounts of marijuana while wearing your hemp necklaces and dredding your hair.

The last song, 'SIPPI' gets really serious sounding and nowhere near as upbeat as 'Orphans Cry' and 'For Today' thus maybe scaring off the hemp wearing trustafarian audience and allowing others to actually appreciate Taj & Adowa as they should be.

With only three songs to go on, I naturally would have to tell you to wait on purchasing any albums; I'm looking out for you and wouldn't steer ya into losing all your giftmas money already. My advice is, hold off on buying anything until your stoner neighbors buy it first. Then if you still like what you hear, ask them if you can borrow it. And then, hope stereotypes are true and they never remember that exchange.