Luciano: The King of a Very Large Village
Achis | Kingston, JA/Philipsburg, SxM | 09/27/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Luciano kinda operates under a 'less is more' mantra of making music. Less in the actual music, not in the quantity, outside of anyone not named Sizzla or Culture, this guy puts out more albums than anyone making reggae music today. You don't sit around awed by his melodies or the riddims that he chooses, and you don't feel over-powered by his voice. What you do feel when you listen to a Luciano record is good. He just makes good music, and perhaps better so than anyone in reggae music, if you need someone to make you a really good song, you might do well to first seek out the Messenjah.
Lessons of Life follows his big album of the year, VP's Serious Times and it more than holds its own, and is arguably better all around than that big budgeted superstar project. Where Serious Times is produced by the excellent Dean Fraser, the more than capable Fat Eyes helms Lessons of Life for Shanachie. The best tune here is the opener, Step Right In, gets the album off a very good note, and that level is maintained throughout the project never actually dipping much, if any at all. Besides the opener you also have the excellent Take A Sip and its remix featuring roots veteran the underappreciated Tony Rebel, also really like Real Rastaman with Louie Culture helping in. Buried on this album is track number 8 Roll Away. Roll Away is an excellent tune over a complicated Dean Fraser riddim, and its there where you best see Luciano's genius minimalist theory at work.
Overall, Lessons of Life is an excellent project if you enjoy really good reggae music. Luciano of course rides the spiritual heavy Rastafari vibes, and he probably rides them better than anyone going today, having dropped two of the best albums of the year this summer, he's absolutely on an international high with some really good music coming out his camp. The cover probably tells the story of this one the best, Luciano just wants to sit around and play his music for people's enjoyment, and I don't hear anyone complaining."
Wicked Luciano Album - up there w/ Exterminator work
dee jay mush one | Brooklyn, NY | 10/04/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Luciano is a huge artist who puts out many albums, usually at least 1-2 per year, sometimes more, w/ varying degrees of quality or catchiness.
This is my favorite Luciano album of them all; not an LP per se,
but a collection of 45's he did over several (4-5?) years
for the Fat Eyes label in Kingston, JA, and then re-issued
by Shanchie. These are heavy heavy dancehall-style
roots riddums, and Luciano's voice soars over them all,
esp. the huge tune, Sitting and Watching. After his
early work for Exterminator, and his now hard to find
1993 debut album, this is my favorite, and I never get
tired of hearing it over and over - really the
best of the best of culture-dancehall and Luciano."
Track Listings (13) - Disc #1