Australia will probably never become a real reggae nation, but with Zennith, an Aboriginal band around brothers Astro and Aden Brim, Down Under is taking a step in the right direction.
The brothers were basically spoon-fed the genre from an early age, as father Willie, the cultural ambassador, bush doctor and songman of the Buluwai of Kuranda in Far North Queensland (see 'Kuranda Reggae', an ode to their home village in the Australian rainforest) and in 1978 one of the founding members of reggae formation Mantaka, is besides vocalist and multi-instrumentalist also the spiritual guide of the band.
'Ancient Warrior' is Zennith's second long-player, following the release of their debut album 'Nothin' To Loose' in 2010. Zennith left nothing to chance for the recording of this album and took to the Tuff Gong Studios in Kingston, where, among other things, they revamped 'I Like It', title track from their eponymous 2007 debut EP, together with Jesse Royal. Other vocal guests are Dre Island, Abijah Asadenaki Livingston (son of Bunny Wailer) and Harjinder Singh, a singer-songwriter and guitarist from Boston in the United States. Zennith produces catchy up-tempo new roots, often spiced up with a fix dose of hip-hop (opener and title track 'Ancient Warrior' with Zami Coleman aka Z.D.C., a local MC from Kuranda, 'This Is' again with Z.D.C., and of course 'Hip-Hop Reggae'). The track list of 'Ancient Warrior' does not contain any misses, but we'll gladly give you our personal favorites: the aforementioned militant title track 'Ancient Warrior', 'So Cold', somewhat reminiscent of the sound of Steel Pulse, and the revamp of 'I Like It' featuring Jesse Royal. Excellent Australian-Jamaican reggae production!