Jim-n-Lisa - Rasta Man

Hear The Track Here

Rasta? I've heard of Tex-Mex but Kingston Tex is really pushing the boat out. It goes without saying that just about everything this duo do really pushes the boat out so seeing them tackle a nice likkle bit o' riddim is kinda par for the course. As they say themselves in their opening blurb 'Jim-n-Lisa play electronic, acoustic, world/new age, jazz, rock, and other styles; sometimes, all at once'. Surprisingly enough it never sounds as bad as it's written. There is a definite art to stitching together complex peices of work and Jim-n-Lisa are one of Soundclick's leading players in the 'how do they do that?' stakes.

Regular readers will already be nauseatingly aware of my feelings about this artist, they were after all my Artist Of The Year once and they have a string of glowing reviews from me - all rightly deserved IMHO. Mind you, after the dubious delights (I jest, t'were fekkin amazing) of Missing Douglas (August 2006) they would have to go some to top that droll little love billetdoux. Truth is, I was half expecting to be a bit let down because - after all - no-one can keep coming up with the goods every time. Especially when it covers an area I especially love, and consider myself fairly proficient. So, having put aside my automatic 'how dare he, I'll kill him' response, which admittedly a hard thing for me to do, I got to grips with me bredden who heretofore had only emitted the odd y'all, now was all I and I and all that...

So, where we we? Aaahh, yes, ganga....

Rasta Man is basically a pean to the miracle weed, complete with bong bubbles, lighter flicks and a roomful of smoke that could drop an elephant in its tracks. My immediate thought was this was like something 10cc would do, rather than something more rootsy and there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, it's a fine pop tradition. In that respect, Rasta Man eventually won over the HUGE predjudice I had worked up with it's cool, breezy style, the lovely flute licks, the inspired sound fx and so much more. You can always count on Jim to load his deck as full as possible, and this track is five minutes of music that it will take you months to drain it dry. Absolutely knockout and not something you would expect from such a known toker. Whenever I meet him, he seems to have trouble stringing a couple of words together. On second thoughts, THAT might have to do with the Texas accent too*. Always talking like they still have the burger in their gob....**

Highly Recommended (very) smooth pop (may prove addictive)

* and ** = NOTE to the Lone Star state: I was only having a leedle joke, please don't kill me