Panik Riddim – Various Artists

Panik Riddim finds its sharpest pull in Straika D’s “Gwada Mada, ” which sounds like the kind of cut that can light up a sound system without trying too hard. The 2005 various-artists set moves through a strong Creole-heavy roster — Apach, Prince Aziz, Supa Lee, and Skanky among them — with each voice leaning into the riddim’s taut, bouncing dancehall pulse in a slightly different way. There’s a nice line between the production and the singers here: the beat stays bare and percussive, so when someone like Supa Lee steps in with “Shine Today, ” the vocal phrasing has room to cut right through. It’s the sort of regional compilation that feels dug up from a time when every new riddim still had its own little island orbit, down to the version tucked in near the end.