Pura Vida & Bleue - Into The Blue (Lost Ark Music)

Puraman Bregt De Boever linked up with Bleue thanks to his collaborations with Lee 'Scratch' Perry, who actively supports Song Embassy in Jamaica, a project set up by Paul Campbell, a lecturer at the Vocational Training Development Institute in Papine. The project first received international attention when Paolo Baldini, among others, recorded Hempress Sativa's 'Boom (Wa Da Da Deng)' there for his second 'Dub Files' compilation. Bleue was still quite unexperienced and a tad shy, but also turned out to be one of those natural talents Jamaica seems littered with. Puraman and Bleue exchanged musical ideas for months on end, and the result is 'Into The Blue', a short (7 vocal cuts and 3 dubs) but highly varied album. Vocally Bleue seems to keep the middle between Jah9 ('Breadfruit Tree') and Ugandan-Swedish songstress Jaqee ('Happy Blues'), with many of her songs having a bit of bluesy vibe. After the devastating passage of Hurricane Irma, 'Paradise # The Irony' can serve as the perfect soundtrack to the images of devastation on island paradises like Saint Martin, Barbuda and Anguilla. In 'Broken' she sings of her misfortune in love, and with 'Life Is All I Ever Had', a duet with Puraman, even strays from the reggae genre altogether. For 'Take Me To Africa', a song standing out partly due to the psychedelic vibe created on Puraman's Hammond organ, Bleue drew on the works of Bob Marley for inspiration, but our personal favorite on 'Into The Blue' is 'Happy Blues', in which Bleu states that the beauty in Jamaica will always outshine the misery on the island. Get 'Into The Blue' with Pura Vida & Bleue and discover this rough Jamaican diamond!