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Jungle Roots - Jungle Roots EP (Self-published)
ReviewsApr 13, 2020

Jungle Roots - Jungle Roots EP (Self-published)

By Jah Rebel

After Spellbreakers, the Antwerp reggae scene welcomes some more fresh blood in the form of Jungle Roots, a young nine-piece formation citing The Wailers, King Tubby and Steel Pulse as musical influences. As a first calling card the band also presents an untitled 6 track EP full of deep roots with jazzy influences (the latter, mostly the input of horn section Ymre Denis - saxophone, Lennart Henderickx - trumpet, and Seba Colson - trumpet, all students at the Antwerp conservatory).

For the production part, Jungle Roots joined forces with Ghent based producer Klaus 'The Operator' Overmeire and Jonathan Troch of Johnny Green Giant Studio, also based in Ghent. We had to get used to the voice of front man Moran De Wachter (even though after a couple of listening sessions this quickly faded away), and here and there the songs may lack a bit of oomph ('The Keys', 'So Far Away'), but this EP is definitely a nice introduction for what's undoubtedly still to follow.

Favorite tracks: the energetic 'Love & Respect', the jazzy 'I Man', featuring the lyrics "Ras for a reason...", undoubtedly meant as a nod/tribute to Midnite's lamented Vaugh Benjamin, and the dubby instrumental closing and "title" track 'Jungle Dub' (in which we recognized the bass line from Burning Spear's 'He Prayed').

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Jungle Roots - Jungle Roots EP (Self-published)

About the Author

Jah Rebel
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Together with Jah Shakespear, one of the founders of Reggae.be, he first started as a critic and a reporter before in the end of 2014 becoming editor in chief. Divides his time between his two passions: music and Haile Selassie.

Genres

DubRootsReggaeJazz

Published

Apr 13, 2020

🇧🇪 Belgian Artist
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