Flutes Riddim – Big Belly Records

Flutes Riddim gathers ten cuts around Big Belly Records’ 2006 juggling, and the lineup has a neat cross-border tilt that keeps it from sounding like a routine dancehall set: Cecile’s “Ice Cream Man” sits beside Joseph Cotton’s “MTV Base, ” while German-language entries from Mono and Nikitaman, Kimoe, and Volkanikman and Sirapanther push the riddim well beyond Kingston’s usual orbit. The production leans on a flute-led, skanking groove that leaves space for the vocals to punch through, with “Island Alone” from Mystic Dan and Singing Gold and “Run Come” from River Gang adding some of the tougher edges in the sequence. Big Belly’s credit here is Robert Zierhofer, and the track list also includes Don Sharicon’s “Better Dan We” plus a straight version cut, keeping the project tightly framed around its 2006 dancehall pulse.