The Divine Crime
By Chris Mastrovito 02/11/2010
Roots & radicals
There is often a tension in music between authenticity and accessibility. Many bands want to cast a wide net to capture large audiences as a means to get noticed, yet a majority of listeners naturally find it more attractive when groups seem to have a clear stream of musical direction. Sometimes, a band can successfully negotiate this tension.
The Divine Crime, a reggae dancehall-style band, harmonizes its reggae roots with the modern music universe, using strong footholds in a variety of music communities, a literally enormous stage presence (nine musicians onstage somehow finding room to move), and a sound like a carefully crafted confection: a chewy reggae center with a thin candy shell of modern pop and R&B more likely to stir the listener toward a rum-and-coke-soaked fit of dancing than rolling up a fat one at the beach.
Bringin’ back da riddim’
Founded by two members of the popular local reggae group Rising Son — Ezra Brooks (drums) and Ben-jamin “Benji” Hamlin (bass) — The Divine Crime mixes a carefully produced cocktail of danceable reggae, R&B, dub and funk at a time when reggae’s love affair with pop music — a relationship that carried on through the ’80s and ’90s with mainstream artists such as UB40, Ace of Base and Shaggy has basically reached its thawing-out stage. It is a time when such pop singers as Rihanna apparently carry the last dying embers of the Caribbean influence into the clubs and charts, where hip-hop and pure electronic dance pop now reign supreme. Amid the passionless marriage of reggae and pop in the new century, The Divine Crime is attempting to force the two distant lovers to meet at a coffee shop to discuss their future. Within two years, well before the release of its debut CD Obliquity, the band managed to find itself before crowds with upward of 3,000 people, including UC Irvine’s annual “Reggaefest” and WorldFest in Los Angeles, and had supported legendary artists such as Yellowman, Pato Banton, and Barrington Levy, among others.
God save the criminals
The Divine Crime is made up of roots that stretch deep, with a web of direct influences that reach all the way back to the dawn of reggae and dub, to even the birth of punk. Obliquity is blessed with exclusive mixes by The Scientist, a veteran of the dub music style that developed in the late 1960s when engineers began systematically varying volume levels of existing recordings, and drenching the drum and bass tracks in extensive delay and reverb effects. Dub techniques are found in much of reggae music, and have influenced many of today’s live DJs. The Scientist perfects the style, adding textural, expansive components to The Divine Crime’s crystalline production without muddying up the mix. Band members Josh Cardinali (guitar), Hamlin and Brooks, no strangers to the reggae universe, had previously served in the band backing up H.R., the charismatic frontman from the pioneering D.C. hardcore punk/reggae band Bad Brains, during H.R.’s periodic ventures into roots reggae solo work. Cardinali and H.R. also recently recorded a reggae album that is yet to be released. Adding to this mix is guitarist Lenny Dread, aka Lenny Steel, member of the mid-’70s punk band Pure Hell, consistently credited as the world’s first punk band ever with black members, which once upon a time toured with a little band called the Sex Pistols. Frontwoman Amee Jana, an East Coast funk-damentalist in her own right, tops off the irie sundae with her dynamic vocal style schooled in funk and soul. Jana, adds a flair and presence that is less often seen in reggae, a genre where the percussion and bass are generally the main attraction.
Opacity
What is a divine crime? The band members, amused by their own name’s ambiguity, asked the question in a fan poll and came up with everything from “a blessed affirmation of destiny” to “eating chocolate after midnight.” Inspired answers to be sure, but the band prefers to leave it open to interpretation. As for the cryptic album title, Obliquity, Divine Crime members decline to fully explain its meaning, saying only that it is “a natural re-occuring process within the universe as we speak.”
The Divine Crime will throw a CD release party at Bombay Bar & Grill in Ventura on Friday, Feb. 12. Obliquity is now available on iTunes, CDbaby, Amazon and at select retailers.
DIGG | del.icio.us | REDDIT