Rekall ADD

Review

EP Review: Rekall - Winning

06/14/2024

Austria’s most exportable home-grown reggae/dancehall talent Rekall has returned with a new EP – showing his skills across five varying tracks. Winning, released via Bassrunner Music, sees the artist move away from the House of Riddim-penned sound of his 2021 debut album Unification – instead giving listeners a smorgasbord of dancehall-led vibes. What Rekall and his team have done so well is to show his versatility across the record.

The EP opens with Nuh Give Up, produced by Binnie Smalls. It focuses on the Afro-dancehall sound that emerged several years ago, across that recognisable broken dancehall rhythmic clave. A tinkering balafon synth hones the Afro vibes, while a winding bassline keeps things moving. Rekall provides a brisk and rhythmically intricate lead vocal, giving a rousing narrative about determination and strength in the face of adversity.

Next, Jamaican artist Leftside comes on board for the title track produced by DJ Hard2Def. Here, the sound is nearer soca than dancehall with its frantic, dotted note-led drums. But it’s up to date with its use of rasping synths and heavy bass line and bass drums. Rekall and Leftside play off well against each other, and it’s lyrically another positivity-oozing affair.

Smalls comes back for production across Family. It’s a soulful Afro-RnB affair – not quite a formidable Afrobeats track because of the use of softer, tonal synths and pared-back drum line, but not quite RnB either because of the stuttering snare and hi-hats and winding bass. It’s summery and fresh with Rekall showing his vocal-led abilities across a pleasing melody and equally pleasing narrative about love and dedication.

Not to hover too long on the polite, Hard2Def and Rekall swerve to the pum-pum on Bend Over, a veritable dancehall banger circa 2020. We’re back to that traditional dancehall clave again, along with the influences of EDM that rose to prominence a few years ago. The synth strings are raspy; the horns are heavily messed with; the vocoder bending, and the breaks hard. For real, it’s lyrically a bruk-out gyal track but Rekall does it with style and urgency.

Winning closes with the Smalls-produced Mad Me. Here, the sound feels nearer to Afro-swing than anything else – albeit with the snare working off the third as opposed to hitting it direct. It’s light with its use of staccato synths, but still grinding with its bassline. There are the ubiquitous nods to dancehall via the bass’s riff, trap with the buzz-rolling hi-hats, and the RnB-led melody from Rekall cements the sound. He shows again he can turn his hand to anything, and the track is a hot cut.

Overall, Winning serves its clear purpose – that is, showing Rekall can turn his hand to anything and after Unification refuses to be boxed in. The beats are well-constructed, the melodies attractive, and Rekall’s vocals solid.