For The Children Riddim – Xterminator

Xterminator keeps this one stripped back and direct: just two cuts, Cologne’s “Who Is That Man” and Turbulence’s title tune, both issued in 2002. With only a pair of voices riding the same reggae framework, the riddim has a focused, almost intimate feel rather than the crowded, all-star sweep you get on bigger one-riddim sets. Cologne opens it with a searching, spiritually minded question, but Turbulence is the cut that lingers longest, pushing the title message with the kind of urgent delivery that made him such a strong fit for conscious material in that era. It’s a compact release, but that economy leaves the songs exposed in the right way, and Turbulence’s “For The Children” ends up carrying the weight of the whole session.