NEW ALBUMS
SLY & ROBBIE
Red Hills Road TAXI
6/10
First album from Jamaican duo in seven years
After half a century as the most prolific “riddim twins” in the business, Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare have slowed up as they approach their seventies, and Red Hills Road is their first LP together since 2014’s Dubrising. This is not so much a dub record as an exercise in Jamaican musical history from mento (“Coronation Market”) to dancehall (“Haul And Pull Up”) with plenty of righteous roots reggae vibes in between. Snatches of half-familiar melodies drift in and out of the synthheavy rhythmic undergrowth and there’s a pleasingly raw and earthy feel throughout.