Sunday, January 11, 2009

Kingston Logic


When Derek Walcott launched his insult-laced diatribe in verse against V.S. Naipaul at Calabash 08 you heard of it here first. As another blog noted, “The press was actually scooped on this story by a blogger in Kingston, Jamaica, Annie Paul.” There have been several other occasions when my readers have received advance or inside information about one thing or another from this blog.

For instance many of you would first have come across the latest Waterhouse musical wunderkid, Terry Lynn, right here on Active Voice. My good friend Peter Dean Rickards had been assaulting me at regular intervals with outtakes from his maiden music video, The System, featuring an amazing new female singer called Terry Lynn. I say 'assaulting' because PD had decided to use the graphic butchery of a pig to depict the predicament of youth from communities such as Waterhouse which the singer lyrically rhymed with 'slaughterhouse'.

When I mentioned Terry Lynn's The System back in August last year the music video hadn't been completed or launched yet. Although its subject matter made me flinch I thought the video brilliant and showed it in Guangzhou at the Guangdong Museum of Art last November where it aroused a lot of interest. Since its release the video has been doing really well, becoming an underground favourite in several places outside Jamaica.

At year end Pitchfork Media -- “the most popular independent-focused music publication online” selected THE SYSTEM by the Rickards Bros. as one of the top 40 videos of 2008. Spin Magazine deemed it one of the 20 Best Music Videos of 2008 ranking it at No.12 worldwide and saying “Sometimes really brutal imagery is necessary to express pure rage at unforgivable social injustices. Leave it to Lynn to lyrically elaborate.”

Dan Cairns of the Sunday Times, UK, declared Terry Lynn, one of the 10 hot new music acts for 2009 in his picks of this year’s “next big things” saying, “Terry Lynn Williams’s first album, Kingstonlogic 2.0, is one of the most exciting debuts I’ve heard in ages.With blues-infused folk, some doo-wop soul and electro synth-pop aplenty, there’ll be something for everybody.”

I've just previewed Terry Lynn's new music video, Kingston Logic, by the Rickards Brothers (and others). It will blow the charts and make history. watch out for it! Using laborious animation techniques which stretched the process out way beyond what a normal video would have taken to finish the Rickards Bros have raised the bar of musical production considerably. The extra time and effort spent was well worth it; the video is a multi-faceted Kingston diamond combining crazy lyrics, a compelling electro beat, seriously creative imagery and razorsharp editing. I can't wait to see where such a superlative, stylish vehicle will transport Lynn.

It'll be a week before the video is publicly released and I can put it up here. But here's The System for those with the stomach to watch it.


The middle and upper classes in Jamaica are whipping themselves into a moral frenzy over Daggering--the latest dance craze to sweep Kingston streets-- screaming in the best tradition of the former slave-owning classes (Upper St. Andrew logic?) for the authorities to do something, anything, to curb the feverishly creative dancing masses (while themselves preparing for the thrusting gyrations of carnival; Eve Mann has a provocative blogpost about this, Soldering that is what young women want). Meanwhile Terry Lynn has given birth to a brand new paradigm with her debut album KingstonLogic 2.o.

2009 is going to be an exciting new year for Jamaican music! Remember--you heard it here first.

12 comments:

Afflicted said...

Thanks for the review Annie..you know we had give u a look before anyone else..

I have to say that i think the best part of this is having it on deck and KNOWING whats there and not having released it yet (we're still tweaking it)--sorta like having a winning lottery ticket but u havent cashed it yet...it feels JUST like that.

A real team effort this...least of all from Miss Sin who was instrumental in the entire thing.

More as it happens...

Unknown said...

Seems you really do have the inside scoop!

Annie Paul said...

Hi Stunner,

i would never make this up! i'm lucky enough to read, see and hear a lot of stuff before it actually sees the light of day...

i'll be sharing some other stuff like that in my next one too, not music but literary work.

Anonymous said...

lynn may be sincere in her claim that any picture of her with a gun is a satirical take on violence in jamaica, but i find it a little disingenuous when we look at rickards's oeuvre overall. so many gyals with guns = cynical celebration, not satire.

big up terry lynn still.

Annie Paul said...

good to hear you Skeptic,

yeah it's almost become a fashion accessory...i just view it as a commentary on these gun-prone times in general.

there certainly are aspects of PD's work that you could raise questions about. i choose to focus on his freewheeling creativity and leave the rest alone.

FSJL said...

Hypocrisy is the Jamaican national virtue.

Anonymous said...

Ditto FSJL!!!

ruthibel said...

wow!! Annie has the hook-up!!
And I read the blog, which means I get the scoop first, or second, (or somewhere close to top 5, which is good enough for me)... woot woot!

That comment about the upper classes going crazy about carnival and criticising daggering to death is true, and something I noticed a while back... the acceptability of the act, (as usual) depends on who, and more specifically, which class of people, choose to indulge in and endorse it...

FJSL, I want with all my heart to object to what you said, to defend my country and point out a plethora of examples to prove you wrong... I want to! But the truth is (and I hate to say it): you're on to something there...

RK said...

That's quite a video. But also interesting how it references traditional reggae iconography with the 'woman in chains' image:
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w75/djdubstrong/suffering.jpg

I say this in connection with the 'Daggering' comments at the Phoenix blog. Change and continuity.

I'll be on the lookout for Terry Lynn. Thanks for the scoop, and thanks for the linklove.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, wrong ID. RK above is me, from Groundwork.

Annie Paul said...

Thanks for visiting RK and specially for leaving a comment--

yes, that's an interesting observation. my friends the videomakers should find that useful.

looking forward to reading your posts on Dagga which is what we call Ganja here...

Anonymous said...

Spin:

“Sometimes really brutal imagery is necessary to express pure rage at unforgivable social injustices. Leave it to Lynn to lyrically elaborate.”

Hmmm... I tend to side with Skeptical above on this one given Rickards extensive history in using guns purely as fashion accessories and thus glamorising violence. Add this to his well documented history of threatening people young and old he would certainly know a thing or two about "social injustices" whilst he exploits them.

http://tinyurl.com/peterdeanrickards