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CD Review:

finley quaye

If I were to mention the name, Finley Quaye in the same sentence as say, Bob Marley or even Peter Tosh, most of you, I hope, would guess that he has something to do with Reggae. If I went on to say that perhaps he is just as influential and ground breaking as the above-mentioned Reggae Gods, you might wonder why you haven't heard of him. One of the reasons could be that he has been almost completely ignored by the main stream, Top 40 crap-radio stations.

His 1997 debut album, 'Maverick A Strike' delivers such a tasty, fusion of deep dub reggae vibe and trip-hop. One of the tracks, the boisterous 'Supreme I Preme', trip-hop beats pound and groove while horns provide the punch as Quaye slips between fuzzed up background talk-sing and classic rasta chanting. From his rapid-fire rhyme checking on the track, 'I Roy', to the hoarse crooning of the Junior Murvin cover, 'Sunday Shining', is just a nugget in this Happy Meal of a talent. His meaningful rhymes are clever and sometimes funny as in, 'I know a man named Sylvester/ Him have to wear a bullet proof vest-yah'.

Finley Quaye, in my opinion, has single handedly brought the Jamaican/U.K. vibe to trip-hop while sounding like a rastafarian Nat King Cole. This is definitely a 'must have' for anyone's collection, jam-packed with soulful, rhythmic, tripped-out, grooves. Get it and of course, stick it in yer ear.

-Stephen Taylor