Major Lazer-- a cartoon Jamaican commando who looks like a sort of military "Mean Joe" Greene-- lost his arms in the secret Zombie War of 1984, before later receiving prosthetic lasers as replacement limbs from the U.S. military. At least according to Diplo and Switch, the producers behind the Major Lazer project and its debut LP, Guns Don't Kill People-- Lazers Do. Why Diplo and Switch (known to your parents in film trailer-speak as "the guys behind 'Paper Planes"') decided to create the unnecessary backstory is a mystery. If it's just to have a little fun, to put together some sort of Super Ape-like cover art, hey fine; if it's in any way about the fact that a white American and a white Brit are here making a dancehall record...this is really an issue?
It feels like it is, in some circles anyway. But the musical dialogue between Jamaica and the U.S. has been strong ever since New Orleans jazz and American R&B began to reach the island via radio, mixing there with calypso, nyahbingi, and other African and Caribbean sounds. In the time since, resourceful Jamaican producers have borrowed from and tweaked soul, Afropop, disco, electro, hip-hop, and more, and the U.S. and UK gave us, uh, Sublime and the Police. (OK, and the Slits, the Pop Group, the Clash, etc., etc.) Plus, you know, there's this whole globalization thing. If it's your first experience with Jamaican music (tsk, tsk), the variety on hand here should help dispel the myth that dancehall or any other Jamaican sound is monosyllabic. (If you need further proof, Soul Jazz's Dynamite! series is a great place for the uninitiated to start...try 200% and 300% first.)
But if you're bugging out over the whole authenticity thing for some reason, Diplo and Switch have lined up a who's-who of Jamaican vocalists: Vybz Kartel, T.O.K., Ms. Thing, Turbulence, Mr. Vegas, Mr. Lexx, and more. Wisely though, they still know their probable audience (i.e. hipsters) and kick this off with "Hold the Line", a song featuring Santigold. (the CD case calls the song "I'll Make Ya", but some discs have been printed with a sticker letting us know the [#script:http://pitchfork.com/media/backend/js/tiny_mce/themes/advanced/langs/en.js]|||||| song is indeed called "Hold the Line", as already indicated from mp3 tags, MySpace streams, and its music video.)
Whatever you want to call it, with its rumbling bass, "A Milli"-like vocal hook, and spaghetti western atmospherics, it's a hell of a way to kick off the solid-to-killer six-song stretch that opens the album. Well paced and immaculately produced, the first half-dozen Guns songs nicely move between the past 30 years of Jamaican music, from the sweet "Can't Stop Now" [ft. Mr. Vegas and Jovi Rockwell], which recalls the rocksteady-indebted, pre-digital sounds of 80s dancehall, to the politically charged "Anything Goes" [ft. Turbulence], steeped in modern ragga and the give-and-take between the island's music and American hip-hop, particularly that from the post-Cash Money South.
The record derails in the middle, and no points for guessing where based on the tracklisting. "Mary Jane" is the requisite weed song, and sadly it's played off as a sniggering novelty, making it both obvious and annoying. (Major Lazer do humor much better later, taking the Baby T-Pain meme and turning it into a clever skit.) There's also a song featuring Amanda Blank, "What U Like", that's of course a minimalist electro track full of boilerplate sex talk. (Einstein asks the appropriately named Blank if she likes it when badman fucks her, etc.; Blank says yes, actually, I do.)
The rest of the back of the album, despite not having the awesome ebb and flow of the first half, features some of its heaviest hitters: Vybz Kartel and T.O.K. (with a return appearance by Ms. Thing) show up and kill on "Pon de Floor" and the Man Parrish-sampling "Bruk Out", respectively. And closer "Jump Up", with co-production from Crookers (of "Day 'N' Nite" remix fame) would be the perfect au courant dancefloor filler if it weren't for the record's weird trojan horse: "Keep It Goin' Louder" [ft. Nina Sky and Ricky Blaze].
So, yeah, buried deep into Diplo and Switch's dancehall record, they went and hid one of the best pop songs of the year. Let's not declare death of Auto-Tune quite yet-- if this thing could get a foothold on the Hot 97s and B96s across the country it would deservedly shoot up the charts. With about three ridiculous hooks, "Louder" serves as a nice calling card for Diplo and Switch as crossover producers and a reminder that Nina Sky are weirdly underutilized.
Five years after teaming with M.I.A. for the Piracy Funds Terrorism mix and making his excursions to favela funk balls in Brazil, Diplo seems oddly underespected these days. Perhaps it's because he's a better DJ and producer than remixer-- and in the immediate aftermath of his rise to fame, it was a remixer that he got his most work. Perhaps it's because to either those who want pop/youth culture to be somehow segregated-- or to those who believe they've graduated from collegiate suburban solipsism into something more open-eared and less purely straight and white, yet still remain suspicious of other white kids who also enjoy disco/hip-hop/dancehall/pop-- he's an easy go-to negative representation of young white urbanites and their encroaching interest in global black culture (which, historically, is the definition of hipsterdom right there).
Whatever the case, he and Switch are kicking off summer with an armful of perfect cookout-, top down-ready songs, like the daytime soundtrack equivalent of all of the summertime night's rooftop music that's been coming from Swedes Air France and the Tough Alliance and their new wave of American indie disciples, such as Real Estate and Memory Cassette in the past year-plus. Best to enjoy it now, even though it will still also sound great in six months.
