Realize Riddim (2021) – Heavy Vibez Records

Realize Riddim keeps the focus tight: six cuts, one live-wire rootsy frame, and a small circle of voices moving through it. Heavy Vibez Records pressed it as their first 12-inch, with Jah Gumby handling the mix and production and Hanimal Selecta in the executive seat, so there’s a crate-digger’s discipline running through the whole thing. Roberto Sánchez opens with the sturdy “So Strong, ” Derrick Parker answers on “Sweet Loving, ” and the melodica version slips in a warm instrumental counterpoint before Kali Navales and Maryanne Ito take over the second side. The title tune has the strongest pull, though; Kali Navales’ “Realize” carries the riddim’s message with the kind of plainspoken weight that keeps the dub cut, “Realize Dub, ” circling back around it.