Ed Rome - Feel No Pain EP (Kingston Express)

Rome by no means limits himself to one single genre, as he is already busy working on an instrumental bluebeat EP that should manifest sometime this summer, and is still looking for a suitable label to distribute 'Common Ancestry', an album full of jazzy afrobeat. For 'Feel No Pain', Rome joined forces with Kingston Express Records, a collaboration Ed has nothing but praise for: "Kingston Express Records for 'Feel No Pain' have been excellent and very supportive, I think Kingston Express will only get stronger and stronger!".

The track list of 'Feel No Pain' contains four new songs ranging from the foundation ska of the opening instrumental 'El Impostor', featuring some excellent horn arrangements, over the soulful roots of title track 'Feel No Pain' and 'Southern Gains', which is somewhat in the same vein, to the folk-like 'Tollesbury Pier', a song that literally is about the Kelvedon and Tollesbury Light Railway, a small rail link that was closed in the 1950s because of the decline in passengers/tourists using it, but actually a parable about embracing failure as part of life as opposed to the constant exhausting pursuit of success.

The EP concludes with 'Hype Dub', a dub version of 'The Hype' from Rome's 'Snapshot' album, which as 'Don't Believe The Hype', an excellent duet with Jamaican veteran Freddie Notes (found on 'Snapshot: Dubs & Subs') that was played regularly on BBC London and BBC Radio 2. Short but very enjoyable EP, leaving us wanting more.