Recorded at the family studio and produced by Stephen Marley, this "Time & Place" is the work of Julian Marley, (another) son of the illustrious Robert Nesta Marley! His first album "Lion in the morning", released in 1996, had marked him out as a rather promising and versatile artist. Julian was born in London in 1975 and grew up with music. He is a self-taught player of bass, percussion and keyboards, and is influenced by many styles. He could be seen on the 1997 live Marley Magic at Central Park, where he performed 3 tracks from his album including "Lion in the morning", an effective roots reggae borrowing the bridge of "Jamming". Although this second album is stamped Tuff Gong, you should not expect a reggae album. Of the 13 tracks on the tracklisting, only half are truly reggae and you have to wait until the fourth track to hear roots worthy of the name. Julian likes to mix genres and says so throughout the record. He warned us (reggaefrance interview) that this album would bring together a bit of both worlds, Reggae and Hip Hop, but also more Jazz and Blues tones. In short, his personal musical universe is not made of reggae music alone.
The album opens with "Father's place", a sunny reggae with pop arrangements, without skank, featuring Bongo Herman and Bunny Wailer on percussion. This track turns out to be a bit too nice and we understand that Julian has not opted for conquering reggae. That said, tracks such as "Build Together", "Systems" or "Couldn't be the place", cut from roots, are solid and are enjoyable to listen to. It is quite rare to be disappointed by roots reggae at Tuff Gong! On the other hand, the lyrics leave you wanting a little more. He tackles hot subjects but often stops too soon... If you read between the lines, you find allusions to the World Trade Center (Time), to the war in Iraq and weapons of mass destruction (Systems); times have changed as he sings, we are in the "Harder Dayz". This track is built around Dad's Natty Dread and is the most hip hop piece on the album. Once again we would like him to describe what these harder days are, but Julian goes round in circles a little on this track, which has only a looping chorus and just two light little verses! The track "Couldn't be the place" with its female backing vocals is quite successful. We will prefer the horn section of this track to the tenor chorus flooding (without much interest) the track "Sitting in the dark". This track is like an encounter with His Majesty and it is, in my opinion, when demonstrating his rasta faith that Julian always writes most skilfully. With these few tracks, we have the essence of the album's roots. The other pieces are rather pop songs and Julian turns out to be a romantic rather than a militant. "Where she lay", "One way train", "I'll never", or "Sunshine" overflow with love and baby I need you and other She knows how to caress me... it becomes a little tiring, especially as in the lyrics, it smells a bit of an ego trip. The originality also lies in the choice of instruments. In "Summer Daisies", a ballad with flute and muted trumpet, Julian asks the right questions: "Do you think life is smelling the scent of summer daisies?" but these questions remain unanswered. As for his musical experiments, you can sense he is drawn to jazz and swing. Pieces such as "Where she lay" and "I'll never" end on a very open jazzy chord. "One way train" is not a great success but shows a certain sense of swing, the piece ending on a jazzy scat to which, unfortunately, is added a digitised voice in the...Daft Punk manner (!).
Julian Marley likes many kinds of music and tries out experiments. These influences are good but the whole lacks a little unity to make this album the one of maturity and give it a real identity. However, the Marley voice timbre is always a pleasure even if he is not the best vocalist in the family. Let us nonetheless point out that alongside artists and friends such as Familyman, Bunny Wailer, Asher (guitar), and with the whole thing concocted at Tuff Gong studio, the result cannot be disastrous. He does not want to be content with redoing less well what his father did, and that is to his credit. He does not throw himself into the hip hop side as Jr Gong did (brilliantly). An interesting artist nonetheless, he makes attempts but you still wonder where he is heading... Let us therefore let time do its work so that Julian finds his place.
