King of Europe: Herbalize It vs. Supersonic Sound

Austrian Irie Sound promoted this event and made sure that everything was perfectly organized and prepared. 

It's interesting to know that the choice of location was definitely not unimportant; both Herbalize It and Supersonic Sound have supporters and fans all over the world. It would have been impossible to guarantee the impartiality of this international soundclash if it would have taken place in either The Netherlands or Germany. Yes, even Belgium could be considered. The fact that the choice of location was well thought through made it possible for both sounds to honestly battle it out on foreign grounds, without fanatic fans influencing the outcome. 

It was, once again proven this weekend, that rivalry in the clash arena does not get in the way of the friendship between both mc's. Both soundsystems, some of the most famous ones in Europe, have become good friends throughout the years, and that was visible in the ring as well. Literally, because the stage was set-up as a boxing ring with a blue and a red corner. At the ringing of the gong, we were all treated to free towels.

Supersonic Team is made up of Junior Blender, Arno and Spida

Herbalize It was represented by Sultan, Carlito and Stef 

Everyone familiar with the European Soundclash scene could have known in advance that this was going to be an interesting confrontation. Both mc's are incredible funny, really know how to handle the mic, have enough experience and know eachother through and through.

They had months to prepare this battle and didn't refrain from building up the necessary controversy and hype on the internet. 

Sultan is also the founder of the online band ESCF (European Soundclash Fraternity) which aims to promote the fraternity aspect of the Jamaican reggae culture. All combative sounds from Europe and beyond are therefore united in this group. Fanatics like me, promoters, soundboys, you name it. Everyone was there with 1 common ground: the passion for reggae soundclash. 

For clarity, a soundclash stands for a musical, theatrical, interactive confrontation between two or more sounds, divided into different rounds. During those rounds only exclusive recordings are played which are unique to the sound. After every round, the crowd is consulted to determine which sound was the best. The votes are counted by the amount of hands raised in the crowd.

Sound clashes originated in Jamaica, where the sound on one street corner needed to prove itself to the sound of the other corner. In a relative small community where music serves as an important means of communication and relaxation, this grew out to be a matter of honor.

The reputation of the best sound is a warrant for success, big dances with great vibes, the newest tunes, the most exclusive recordings and artists and so on. Successful sounds are booked more often and travel all the continents of the world. They become real institutes that last for generations.

 Some fans go to great lengths to defend the reputation of their favorite, cherished sound. The passion for music, the exclusive dub plates, customs and the whole theatrics of the clash make this one of the most valuable forms of musical art within the reggae culture. It's also an important part, because it has known highs and lows in the last 3 decades, because that's how young sound clashes are. The phenomenon arose at the end of the seventies, from the ghettos where reputation is a matter of life and death. A sound killing is a matter of honor an only one can win. You could also apply this to other music genres, but in this case we are clearly talking about reggae. The golden rule is that only dub plates are played, usually custom made for that one clash. Apart from that, there are actually hardly any rules.

 Europe also knows a real clash culture with European sounds and fans that share this international and border-crossing passion. 

This reporter was so lucky to share a table with thirty experienced clash tourists from all corners of Europe: Italians, Swiss, Hungarians, Swedes, French, Dutch, Germans, and Belgians, to name a few. They all had their own favorite sound and travel story. Some of them traveled thousands of kilometers not to miss this event. Others combined it with a city-trip with their family that weekend. The passion for music can drive you to do crazy things. I flew from the other side of the continent myself to write this review for reggae.be and to feed my passion. Once you get bitten by the bug, it's hard to resist assisting big sound clashes.

 

The division into rounds: 

1. ROUND: 10 Min per Sound (Sparring Round)

2. ROUND: 20 Min per Sound (Power Punch Round)

3. ROUND: 20 Min per Sound (Heavyweight Round)

4. ROUND: 10 Min per Sound (Knock-Out Round)

 

Punch fi Punch (Dub fi Dub – Best of 10)

 

First Round: 

Herbalize It kicks it off like a madman and doesn't waste any valuable time.

 Sultan and Carlito are clearly ready for it and are prepared; they know how to hit the weaker spots of Supersonic.

This first round is extremely intense and really gets the crowd going.

I don't recall any mediocre dubs, only big tunes that got big forwards. It was a well-conceived selection with a very self-confident speech. It was spontaneous and structured, intelligent and tactically strong.

 Sulton immediately points out the absence of Panza, the founder of Supersonic, who chose to perform in Berlin that same night. Without him, Supersonic is only partly represented, to which Sultan says: "Loyalty above Royalty", a one-liner that serves as an uppercut. They are offensive and driven and set the tone for the entire first round.

 Supersonic doesn't immediately equal this musically. Their selection is rather messy and maybe they are still looking for that battle drive inside. I'm personally not very impressed and the first round deservedly goes to Herbalize It.

 The outcome is only credible if the crowd isn't biased. This was really right in Vienna, I saw that the crowd of around 400 people really came to judge neutrally. No clans and relatively few party heads that had come across the event by accident, but an honest and spontaneous judgment from the public jury. The first round was almost unanimously awarded to Herbalize It. You could count the people who preferred Supersonic on one hand, and they had kind of lost their credibility by then. Herbalize It was without a doubt superior: better speech, better tunes, better stage performance and better all-round performance. 

In any case a good start of the clash.

 

Second Round: 

Supersonic ends up taking this round, but without much conviction. They revert too easily to flirting with other genres and I hear a lot of old dub plates that miss their goal. I don't hear a lot of coherence and a lot of randomness. The repeated gunshots and other sound effects become more of a disruptive element than additions to the music. Spida, on the other hand, has woken up and creates some pretty convincing moments. Maybe they were using easy forwards, I don't know, but after seeing a lot of their clashes, I get the feeling that Supersonic was recycling a lot and being less innovative. Some of their anthems reached their goals, others passed me by completely.

Even in the second round, I can't ditch the impression that Herbalize It connects a lot more with the audience, keeps the vibe alive, and is able to continue on the same rhythm with several artists whereas Supersonic often interrupt them with speech. Herbalize It plays quite the number of customs en they all get massive forwards.

 Most of the speeches and customs have a humoristic and creative tone and the atmosphere between both sounds is joyful, even when the heat was on.

The sparing use of forwards is a good indicator to me that the audience does not get seduced too easily by speeches and half-baked tunes. I would have personally awarded the second round to Herbalize It as well. It wouldn't have been undeserved, but the crowd decided differently.

 So we have a tie at the start of the third round.

That's never a bad thing, and to me, Herbalize It was the winner of the night already, solely because they proved not to be subordinate to the highly reputed soundkiller from Berlin, and even more because they were able to pull the win.

My esteem for them rose and they really gave their all. I was greatly impressed and I wasn't the only one.

 

Third Round: 

The third round both mc were equally good, in a battle with a lot of customs from Herbalize It and aggressiveness from both. There were lots of good jokes, stabs below the belt and tactics to discredit the other party. Not very successfully though. A negative may have been their selection, purely musically speaking. The parts where Sultan calls Spida an informer, followed by the pictures of football matches in which Spida appears to be masked, are hilarious. It's a question of the pot calling the kettle black. He also stated that the success of Supersonic is his personal merit. Well, I can quote many more of those. The most important is that at no point whatsoever, the atmosphere was poisoned with a negative attitude. Both friends were calling each other names but with a big smile from beginning to end.

Their style, humor, creativity and originality made this clash one of the greatest I have ever seen.

Supersonic also came with some mortal customs and countering actions, which made round three a real joy to watch. The mood was very cheery and apart from a minor incident, everything went smoothly.

Supersonic deservedly won the third round. They used their diversity in a smarter way and really connected with the audience.

Herbalize It couldn't keep up the energy and intensity of the first round until the end. Although I by no means want to say they ran out of tunes. All dub plates were of superior quality and exclusivity. I definitely got what I had asked for. My expectations were high while travelling to Vienna and they were met. The hosts of the event organized it really professionally and made sure the voting happened honestly and objectively, which isn't easy when both mc's put you under a lot of pressure to influence you. But each outcome was deserved.

 

Fourth Round: 

Both sounds gave it their all, and it seems like it's raining original customs. Herbalize It starts this round quietly, but quickly correct themselves. The second part of their set is much catchier. Christopher Martin and Taranchylla customs get the most amount of forwards again. Supersonic Sounds knows how to answer to them and oozes with self-confidence. Their selection is varied and seems to please the crowd better. Their speeches and argumentation are flawless. Spida really steals the hearts of the audience and at the start of the voting, it's already obvious that this round will go to Supersonic. Clearly deserved.

 

Dub Fi Dub of Tune Fi Tune: 

DFD:Youtube

part 1:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyo3cGDSobI

part 2:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyPhWSIT7NI

Supersonic manages to regain its glory throughout the night, but the real winner for me was Herbalize It. A David that can't really manage to kill Goliath at the last moment, but who gave him a serious limp. Cain and Abel that just barely refrain from killing each other. And all this with a respectful attitude, pure class. It was a special event that I wouldn't have missed for the world.

Please go to the audio link below to listen to some of the music. Be your own musical judge of the event.

Audiolink Clashaudio :https://soundcloud.com/iriesound/king-of-europe-soundclash#play