Originally published in Notion 063.
The conceptual project of global
trend-setter Diplo (real name Wesley Pentz) is finally back with a
second album, and our favourite one-armed Jamaican commando has been
switched
onto wriggly/playful/restless mode. Of course, you’ll instantly
recognise the off-beat strokes and dancehall riddims that pervade Free
The Universe, but you’ll probably scratch your head at its wonky, gloopy
blend of reggae, hip hop and dubstep. Not to mention
its bizarre roll call of guest vocalists which straddles the line
between the LOL-worthy (Shaggy), the hip (Danielle Haim) and the
downright massive (Bruno Mars). One thing is clear, however: although
Diplo’s partner-in-crime Switch dropped out of the venture due to
“creative differences” a little over a year ago, Major Lazer is still
pumping
out the quintessential party music of our time, transcending different
musical styles, underpinning everything with humour (naming a song
‘Bubble Butt’, for instance), with the basic aim to make the listener
skank along like an overdosed, fist-pumping oddball. Take ‘Jah No Partial’, on which Dip and
Flux Pavilion rework a reggae jam into a wubbing, thudding dubstep
anthem: it’s completely bananas. And even more so when you juxtapose it
with something rather more subdued like last year’s on-line smash ‘Get
Free’, a lilting, soulful, politicised ode to emancipation with vocals
from Dirty Projectors’ Amber Hoffman. This album so easily could have sounded heavy-handed and
exhausting, but instead draws pleasure out of excess.
