Roots Nation has released their debut reggae album Temperature’s Risin.’ The title track is a hefty dose of reggae beat, pulsating, a living, breathing thing that makes you want to move your feet. Leader Greg Pearlman sounds like he’s from the islands in his vocal phrasing. He has a lot of charm in his approach, injecting individual nuances to color each number. Pearlman is also a keyboard player and a trombonist, and he gives Roots Nation a heavy duty sound that combines reggae, ska, R&B before adding extra weight to the mix.
Saxophonist Aaron Spears gets his groove on with some incisive tenor blowing. There is so much blowing around this island beat that you expect to get knocked over by it, a hurricane coming at you with gale force musical power. Bassist M’talewa Thomas is the covert hero of this band. He may be in the rhythm section, but he gives a mighty pulse to everything going on in this band’s music. He must also have his hands full with keeping up a low end sound that so much music can ride over.
“Do The Downbeat” is another of these horn-blowing, hefty beat, thick low end soups. The beat takes its time here, and moves similar to a shuffle in blues. Co-lead vocalists Pearlman and Julie DiOrio don’t blend so much as compliment each other. DiOrio’s girlish croon slides around Pearlman’s gruffer, island-accented voice, making for playful fun in their voicing.
The band ease on the tune “It’s Serious,” a reggae thump that sounds like it is based on a two-step waltz. The bass and drums(Glen Grant) keep nudging this tune forward with a progression that bumps forward a few notes before returning to the beginning of the interval. For a rhythm section that only had to play a simple interval here, they sure come up with something serious, heavy, and forceful.
Pearlman soothes the ear with his gentle vocal phrasing on “Unchanged Vibes,” a piece written by sax player Aaron Spears. Pearlman’s keyboards are set in a near marimba tone, and his quaint little sweet notes compliment some exotic percussion instruments. The result is a sound that asserts itself without being heavy or intrusive. The music is almost saying come and see what is deeper inside, as you have to listen for the sweet melody inside the space left open by the rhythm section.
“Shark Attack” makes lyrical light of bad things that can come your way in life by ignoring real dangers. Pearlman uses a shark attack as a metaphor for what awaits us below the surface of calm sea. Pearlman injects a jaunty keyboard riff that dances with guest guitarist Andy Bassford’s playful, funky riff.
“Ill B. Good” makes use of a boogie beat to create the rhythm section platform for the keys, horns, and guitar to skip over. The sound is created when the lighter melody instruments dance with each other over that pulsating thump. Even the mingling of the vocals, male and female, is lighter than the groove, and that gives this music its charm, that unobtrusive spark over the more obvious low end beats. Only the horns come close to being as heavy as the rhythm section. Balancing these weights is a specialty of Roots Nation, and that gives an authentic island feel to these cats who are based out of Dover, New Hampshire.
Pearlman and DiOrio coo the introductory lyrics to their cover of classic reggae master Willi William‘s “Dungeon.” It’s a breezily paced ska beat shuffle graced by a light swirl of synth notes and a mild mannered pair of horns. Pearlman brings his soothing vocal timbre to this one and it fits in beautifully with this graceful groove. Roots Nation is at their most appealing when they take this easy going approach to constructing their song. Each melody instrument and voice is like a dancer on the same floor doing a different interpretation of what the beat instructs, like a kaleidoscope of sound.
Guest guitarist Bassford gets more aggressive on “Only Human,” leading this piece with a laser sharp, incisive phrase. Bassford makes his notes echo after he plays them, and the aftermath vibe seems to be playing with each set of notes that comes after. Only a true artist can get this kind of effect from his instrument, and Bassford makes his notes spiral off in beautiful directions throughout the song.
“Chalice Of Love” is a good chunk of horn and heavy rhythm section. The sound is bulbous. The trombone blows in cascading measures over the body of sound, like a castle trumpeter announcing the arrival of a king’s guests. This kind of reggae is definitely cool, yet Roots Nation make it sound larger than life, majestic, a music that is bigger than the individual instrument’s parts. There is another member, keyboardist Rider McCoy, who can only aid the construction of something huge, wide, something filled with a myriad of instrumentation riding down the rails of hefty groove.
Keyboardist McCoy contributed closing track “Minutiae,” a song that celebrates the small details of life. A synthesized island melody shines all the way through, and the rest of the melody instruments follow its pattern in a delightful yet wider interpretation of the central melody.
The rest of the CD is comprised of four tracks that offer dub versions of some of the previous tracks. The interpretations are grittier and strangely echo the tunes they are based on.
Roots Nation has a sound that you will not be able to escape. If you wander into a club and find them on stage, you will likely be enveloped and mesmerized by the echoing melodies, twisty instrumentation, and the heaviness of their grooves. This band has something to offer listeners of serious music as well as people who seriously like to dance.
Thanks for the lovely review! The project was a blast, and I’m glad you enjoyed it.