Old Timer Riddim – Seedness Music

Seedness Music’s Old Timer Riddim landed with a quiet but sharp little moment in early-2013 reggae, and the hook is the all-female roll call riding one instrumental: Queen Omega, Sara Lugo, Judy Mowatt, Sista Jahan and a handful of French and Caribbean voices all cut their own angle on the same roots pattern. The production has that warm, vintage sway suggested by the title, but it isn’t nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake; the cut feels more like a showcase for singers who can stretch a melody and keep the message front and centre. Judy Mowatt’s “Jah Love” gives the set real weight, while Queen Omega and Sara Lugo bring the kind of authority and polish that make the riddim easy to keep circling back to. Compared with Seedness’s later catalogue, it sits right where the label’s taste for singer-driven, harmony-rich reggae first began to take shape.