Levi Roots - Red Hot

  by Adrian Huggins

published: 24 / 10 / 2009

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I hate ‘Dragon's Den’ with a passion and see it as a bunch of idiots trying to persuade even bigger idiots that they have the next great invention, when it often the case that they should be in front of men in white coats, not suits. To make it worse the second bunch of idiots are all filthy rich and sit their judging these people and reveling in cutting these poor fools down to size by sullying all their ideas and hard work. That is, however, just my opinion. I can, however, say that I am aware of at least one person who came out of the show gleaming and made a real success of himself. This gives me a shred of hope in humanity. And probably also the television producers at the BBC. You will probably have heard of Levi Roots in one way or another, and maybe through his invention of Reggae Reggae sauce, (which by the way is actually delicious and I have absolutely no qualms about plugging it as I would happily receive any freebies for this endorsement. Wink, wink, nod, nod!) You may, however. also be familiar with Levi’s cooking programme which makes me salivate at the mere sight of it. After all this success and him taking over the country and the world like some one man Jamaican Starbucks type, you’d think Levi would put his feet up for a while right? No! He’s gone back to his reggae roots, (Yes I went there, deal with it), and making some sweet, sweet tunes. He starts off his album 'Red Hot' in mellow style with the acoustic ballad ‘Share Love’. It quickly generates into the commercial reggae stylings I was expecting on ‘So Out of My Mind’. Suddenly life is sunny and I couldn’t be happier. ‘Cool Me Off’ pretty much says it all and is a straight-up up ska-style reggae song laden with horns. You can just chill out and enjoy it, although it seriously will make you want to eat Caribbean food and drink run. Things get a little more serious and political with ‘US Africa’. It is one of the many beauties of this genre, the ability to really get across a message with music, while not forcing it down your throat. It is this sort of thing that helps you see that Levi is by no means so half-hearted singer trying to cash in on his other success. He started out his own label, Conqueror Records in 1982, using it to release his band Matic 16's music. After some years plugging away at this he had all but knocked music on the head until a chance meeting with Nelson Mandela in 1990, (seriously, is there anything this guy hasn’t done?), gave him the inspiration to write and make another album. He then set up another label, Sound Box Media and continued to sporadically write, produce and release music through the 90s. In short this is what he always did and has always done and that whole sauce/dragon thing was merely a well earning distraction from an illustrious career in music. ‘Try, Try’ and ‘Everything is Natural’ tread the more “herbal inspired” facets of reggae culture and fit beautifully into the album which takes you up, hugs you, feeds you then entertains and relaxes you after. As an album ‘Red Hot’ really feels like a complete body of work. It is definitely worth a listen if you enjoy this sort of sound. It offers nothing new, but is of such good quality it doesn’t need to. It is a great record and I really love it.

Track Listing:-

1 Share Love (Acoustic Mix)
2 So Out Of My Mind
3 Cool Me Off
4 US Africa
5 Border Avenue
6 Try Try
7 Everything Is Natural
8 Black On Black
9 Red Hot
10 Mix Up
11 Love The King
12 Share Love (Rockers Mix)

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