When Again Riddim – Wiletunes

Wiley, bass-heavy dancehall energy runs through When Again Riddim, with a spare, mechanical groove that leaves plenty of room for the voices to cut through. Wiletunes keeps the lineup tight: Marcy Chin opens with the title tune, Point O follows on the more patois-heavy “Granny Money, ” and Ward 21 take two swings at the riddim with “Get And Nuh Chat” and “Tell Har Fi Move, ” which pushes the project into harder-edged territory. The instrumental closes the set, but the vocal cuts do the real talking here, especially Ward 21’s pair, which lock into the rhythm’s clipped bounce and keep the whole release moving with attitude. Put together in 2014, it’s a compact dancehall set that leans on sharp phrasing and a stripped-down forward drive rather than flashy ornament.