Sizzla + Swiss Beats = Good Vibes

Talen (featuring Sizzla): The Vibes-A Sizzla Tale
From: Kingston Book [Mouthwatering Records, 2009]

After the positive Fela! experience, I’m trying to not ignore promo emails so much. I’m glad; otherwise I would have missed out on this fine jam – a wonderfully successful collaboration between Winterthur, Switzerland based production/DJ crew Talen Bass System and Dancehall legends Sizzla and Cutty Ranks.

When I read “Switzerland” and “Sizzla” in the same sentence, my curiosity was peaked. I know absolutely nothing about the Swiss music scene so exploring the mp3 links seemed like a good learning opportunity. Indeed. The Vibes-A Sizzla Tale is quite literally a “tale”. Sizzla uses his time on the mic to do some story telling, and, it’s a good read- a sort of Reggae how-to coming-up success story all boiling down to… don’t fight the vibes. And, Talen do well providing some deep undeniable vibes. Massive kick, plenty of deep (almost acid’y) synth, and a rocking bass line. I think Talen themselves nail it when they describe their tune:

A mighty, yet playful, beat… Rock’n'Roll in a Dancehall costume, or rather vice-versa? Doesn’t matter – as long as the vibe is right.

If you find The Vibes hits the spot, I recommend downloading the excellent Kingston Book promo DJ session. This 42min session shows just how inspired the Talen/Sizzla/Cutty Ranks collabo is.

Talen – Kingston Book Session DJ Mix [download link]

This promo straight sounds like a party; a party I’d like to go to. Consistently great throughout. I’m happy to say, Talen was kind enough of answer some of my questions about the session:

1. Are all the beats in the Kingston Book Session also produced by Talen? or, is it a collection of beats from the Mouthwatering Records crew?

All original versions are talen beats, (the vibes, sniper sniper, the morning rush and track this)  the peoples who did the remixes only had got the Voice files, so they had to do their one beats. [note: tracklist here]

2. I’m curious how the Kingston Book Session was put together. Did you make a studio reel and send it to Sizzla and Cutty Rank’s peeps? Or, did they make the trip to Switzerland?

We have met the artists in a studio in Zürich, Switzerland. It was spontaneous session a day before they had a concert in Zurich, they just liked the beats pretty much; means sizzla and cutty went crazy, when they were hearing it the first time.

3. Do you have a crew of local MC’s?

We don’t have mc’s for fix …that’s why at the moment we do more dj’ing, named as TALEN BASS SYSTEM. And we like to work with international artists as well.

Hope you dig.
www.myspace.com/talench
www.mouthwateringrecords.com