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| Pitchfork |
 About four years ago, the Jamaican label Greensleeves released a double-disc greatest-hits set called From Dubplate to Download: The Best of Greensleeves Records. The label's been releasing music for decades now, and listening to the set felt like taking a crash course in 30 years of Jamaican anthems, from the the Wailing Souls' slow, organic roots music to the fired-up high-BPM digital dancehall of recent years. And as compulsively listenable as From Dubplate to Download was, there was enough variety in that long arc that the stuff at the end really didn't belong to the same genre as the stuff at the beginning. When you look back at Greensleeves' catalog, you're looking at a truly varied landscape.As a DJ, Diplo's greatest asset has always been his versatility, his willingness to pull from any and all possible sources in order to keep a party moving. Never Scared, the landmark 2003 mix from Diplo and Low Budget's Hollertronix project, introduced many of us to Diplo's flailing style by finding room for the Bangles and Baltimore club and the Clash and random-ass Southern rap micro-hits; it felt like they were chewing up the whole of popular music and puking it back out in danceable form. In recent years, that DJ style has hardened into something of a shtick as lesser DJs have taken it and run. But Diplo, at his best, still has a rare sense of rule-blurring vision; he managed, for instance, to get an entire festival crowd dumbing out to Ace of Base's "All That She Wants" during Major Lazer's set at last year's Pitchfork Music Festival. The whole Major Lazer project is a testament to how much Diplo and partner Switch love Jamaican music in all its stylistic variety, so you'd think that, given Greensleeves' massive back catalog to play with, Diplo would take the opportunity to just go nuts. Not the case. Riddimentary: Diplo Selects Greensleeves, his DJ mix of music from the label's past, turns out to be a love letter to a very specific period in the genre's evolution: The early-80s moment when deep one-drop roots reggae was just starting to transform into dancehall. It was a time when all these older stars started to integrate digital drum-triggers and echoey synthesizer lines into their tracks, and when the Barrington Levy/Yellowman style of nonsensical stutter-scatting was blowing up. Riddimentary isn't a wide-ranging dance party; it's a mix that maintains a single mood and a single tempo throughout. You could dance to it, if you wanted, but you could also wash dishes or read a book or drive down a highway in the middle of the night....full text |
| Tumble-weave |
| According to various sources (Pitchfork, XLR8, etc) Diplo is due to release a reggae/dub compilation early next year. This is slightly different to the mixtapes he has put out over the last couple of years. After being allowed access to the Greensleeves label back catalogue, the results of his exploration can be heard in the form of 'Riddimentary'. Not only are there plenty of household names making appearances on the tracklisting (Eek-a-Mouse, Lone Ranger, Prince Far I, Gregory Isaacs etc), but Diplo has inclulded a few personal favourites of my own too (a coincidence, obviously)......full text |
| Residentadvisor |
| Founded as a small record shop back in 1975, Greensleeves is one of the UK's longest running reggae and dancehall imprints. Its vast catalog includes essential 12-inches by artists like Scientist, Eek-a-mouse and Gregory Isaacs to name just a few, all of whom are included on Riddementary. Given the dancehall influence on his on music and DJ sets, and especially in his work with Switch as Major Lazer, Diplo seems an especially fitting choice for the compilation. According to VP Records, the New York label who will release Riddimentary, the collection "shines a light on Diplo's production influences and expert knowledge" of reggae....full text |
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