Guiding Star Riddim (2020) – Buzwakk Records

Buzwakk Records frames Guiding Star Riddim as a straight-up roots reggae juggling from 2020, and the cast tells you exactly where its heart sits: veteran voices, conscious themes, and a strong lean toward uplift. The label has been active across reggae and dancehall for years, with a catalogue that stretches from earlier projects like Love Bumper and Pinge Ling to later releases such as Red Label and Dreams, so Guiding Star lands as part of a long-running production run rather than a one-off experiment.

The title cut from Al Campbell sets the tone with that seasoned, weathered delivery he’s carried since the late 1960s, while Luciano’s Jah Rescue pushes the same message with his familiar rasta-conscious tenor and a more urgent spiritual pull. Mikey General’s Be The Change fits the era’s message-driven roots lane too, bringing his reflective, devotional style to the fore. Ricardo Mckenzie’s We Need A Change and Jaheir’s Let Music Be Our Light keep the social uplift front and center, while Queeny D’Empress adds a steadier, feminine presence on Still Deh Yah.

Anthony Johnson’s Keep A Good Man Down, cut with Real African, nods to the older school of reggae songwriting, and Bucky Jo’s Nah Give In adds grit to the sequence. The riddim itself carries a warm, meditative pulse with enough bass weight to hold a juggling, but it never gets too busy; the arrangement leaves room for the vocals to carry the message. That balance is what makes Guiding Star work: it is less about flash than about giving strong singers a firm, rootsy floor to stand on.