Mr. Williamz ADD

Review

Album Review: Mr. Williamz - Set The Standard

02/03/2014

by Angus Taylor

Mr. Williamz is something of a throwback to the foundation days of dancehall. He deejays in a cool yet serious style similar to Super Cat and maintains a dapper dress sense in the gentleman rudeboy fashion.

Like the great deejays of old he grew up in the shadow of Jamaican sound systems - only returning to his London birthplace as a teen. There he began recording with friends as Kool Kat before getting the attention of Necessary Mayhem producer Curtis Lynch: releasing the majority of 45s for him while freelancing for others – such as Germany’s Jahtari, the USA’s Green Lion Crew and Scotland’s Mungo’s HiFi.

His live performances have taken him around the world but a proper longplayer with Curtis has been a long time coming. The closest we got was an EP titled Last Night released back in 2011. Now upon us, the album itself comprises 2 tracks from the EP plus 9 other singles and 4 new cuts – showcasing more of the dancehall side of Necessary Mayhem’s productions.

Lynch’s music is deeply in thrall to late 80s Jamaica spliced with heavy jungle bass-lines and a defiantly robotic modern Pro Tools sound. Laser guns meet wheeling Studio 1 organs as machine gun digital snares crackle above dark sub 30 Hz “who feels it knows it” bottom end. Hypnotic yet never monotonous Mr. Williamz has one of those voices you can listen to for a whole album without getting bored. Refreshingly, he eschews autotune (the exception is hometown historical homage London which sounds as if some pitch correction was employed). While not a natural singer, his tone remains pleasing to the ear.

You’ll find Necessary Mayhem relick classics like 2008’s breakout for both producer and artist Babylon in Helicopter (sampling John Holt’s Police in Helicopter as well as Barrington Levy’s Under Mi Sensi and Collie Buddz' Come Around). Where a token herbal tune would suffice for most reggae artists Mr. Williamz has five: including the boastful No Cigarette over a Lynchian update of Tristan Palma’s Joker Smoker and a Benny Page jungle remix of Pass The Kutchie called It Haffi Bun. Quantity clearly matters to Mr. Williamz who seems lyrically preoccupied with the size of his combustibles. Naturally he also enjoys wielding the mic as recounted in Shell Down featuring singer Specialist Moss and a sample of the Jammys rhythm to Cocoa Tea’s Come Again.

Fresh material includes the rootsy Ganja Palace, and the sound system burial meets romance of Miss Brown and Shout It Out. The lead in single is Middle East – which to a backdrop of qanun, tanun and tabla uses aggressive bedroom metaphors (with the added controversy of using a predominantly Muslim location for a tale of fornication).

As with many Necessary Mayhem longformat releases it's a mix of old tunes and new. But you’re going to be hard pressed to find a track you’d want to skip. As an example of pure, no frills deejaying without half arsed attempts at singing, it's tough to beat and long overdue.

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