For once, it is a non-Jamaican who has made one of the best reggae albums of the year. Victor Axelrod, aka Ticklah, presents his two-sided album, one side dub, the other devoted to his keyboard virtuosity. Based in New York, Axelrod is among those who had the excellent idea of covering "Dark Side of the Moon" in a reggae version on the Easy Star label. A full-time keyboardist with Antibalas, he has dropped afrobeat to plunge into Caribbean sounds, concentrating on the two islands of the region with the densest musical history, Cuba and Jamaica.
The archetype of the record is this sublime adaptation of Eddie Palmieri's Latin-jazz standard (Si Hecho Palante), as pure minor-key reggae reminiscent of the best productions of Vivian Jackson aka Yabby You, and magnified by the voice of Mayra Vega, a regular on Antibalas tours, who also appears on a second cover of the salsa pianist (Mi Sonsito).
Ticklah has also brought in the Jamaican veteran Mikey General (author of the hit Money run Tings) on an excellent roots reggae, and the Brooklyn toaster Rob Symeonn, who leads a charge against pork eaters, and renews trip hop with the very airy Deception, featuring Vinia Mojica. The Antibalas keyboardist takes a sort of tour of Caribbean musical genres, and we eagerly await him pushing the experiment further.
