2021 Soca Season: Carnival is cancelled, but the music keeps flowing

So... yeah. Machel invites you to a Private Party. Do bring the family.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaftVOQIX3c

Machel Montano - Private Party (The Origin Project)

Loving the Crazy Duck Riddim atm

Problem Child
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwihx5qgCkM

Nadia Batson:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUgg8GQQkQI

Lyrikal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3Ga0K0kkCA

Shal Marshall:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42SFYrn3Cbo

nice one longneck, thanks for starting this. I don't feel too bad about sleeping on soca last year for obvs reasons, but I'm in the mood now (and just bumped the Nailah thread with "Farmer" which is a warm afropoppy jam).

Dang though, I was not expecting to find that "Private Party" video genuinely moving -- doesn't help that T&T was the last big holiday I went on.

Crazy Duck is v cool, power soca but slightly muted makes sense for the times

Swappi's "Properly" came out back in June but is an anthem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bLQIA0Ub-U

That soca is almost always about social life in the present means this season is going to be quite the time capsule:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzZODay563c

Preedy, "Wine Pon Live" (skip to 1:00 if you just want to hear the song)

I should def have been listening to soca in June, absolutely love this Nessa Preppy & Salty tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvzxTwi8Rwg

"Pull Up"

great to see this thread getting some well-needed love.

my friends who run the weekly Super Soca Show on Ujima.fm (well worth a listen on Saturday lunchtimes btw) were remarking that while Soca is party music, when of the key themes running through it is a feeling of yearning: a need to de-stress, to let go and to party. So to that extent, the messages and themes can be easily reworked to suit lockdown times

otm, I was having more or less the same thought watching this Iwer George video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4oOc78ss08

technically 2020 season so I won't post it, but I'm only hearing "Splash" for the first time and wauu

looking forward to checking all these (and the Nailahs) out.
can I point everyone to the where's d'scene? rolling soca, chutney, jab & other caribbean pop thread as well? I use it these days, every now and then, to post bangers from the non-dancehall and non-soca countries in the Caribbean, and it could do with a lot more love!

thanks for the reminder bc, I think I unbookmarked that at some point due to self-inflicted soca thread confusion (btw I wouldn't be offended if you decided to start a thread with a clearer title)

I just posted Nailah's version on her thread, but the Tender Touch riddim is gorgeous laid-back afro-soca, which Olatunji always excels at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THXQ041PJzU

"Angel"

Teddyson John & Kerwin Du Bois' "See Dem" almost invents socadelia but I'm not quite sure it works?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGNBti3Ld-E

now we're rolling! Thanks, rob!

p good reflection (note to Fader: it is 2021) on the current scene:

https://www.thefader.com/2021/02/17/without-carnival-soca-artists-made-2020-theirs

mentioned in that article, Motto's "Uber Everywhere" is an anthem*:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLmLrfthu0I

*not just for Uber, Inc. lol

ha, I’m in the very middle of finally checking these out. my main findings so far:

- I love the Crazy Duck Riddim

- I am extremely sure Teddyson John & Kerwin Du Bois' "See Dem” works incredibly well for me

Just in:

- “Uber Everywhere” is top notch

ha yeah I was shuffling my soca playlist the other day and "See Dem" came up, I was like "what is this?? it's amazing!"; just needed fresher ears I think

this takes a minute to build up but then it's monumental:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KkC8uU0OC0

System32 & Shal Marshall, "All Day" (the whole 24 Hour riddim is prob worth checking out)

“Properly” also a proper jam

Swappi's properly is... strangely kartel-like in that one part. I love all of it.

it has some vybz for sure! annoyingly not on streaming in my neck of the woods though

I can't find it anywhere outside of youtube, unfortunately. I need an mp3 badly.

always puzzling to me when this happens and there's a professional video

Nadia Batson's A Love Note to Carnival is giving me all the feels tonight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjntjwvlswA

Loving how Machel channels Wizkid on the approriately titled High Life (Beach Chair Riddim)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EarA7zSmmQ

Kerwin's 'See Dem' upthread is something special, the way it hardly has any beats on it but still sounds iconic and like something you could see people getting down to. No doubt it will get versioned to fuck, and I'm all for a big Road version myself

This is sumptuous. Can't wait for summer

Aisha Noel - One Dance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRu4Dx0pq6k

Belated thanks for System32 "All Day" as noted earlier, once it gets going that is a serious jam

Does David Rudder still put out music or is he retired?

wild, i was just listening to "Calypso Music" when i clicked this thread!

So I held an informal 2021 Soca Monarch competition at the school where I work back in early March and the clear winner was Olatunji's Drunk History

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYsUg3v0Ibg

Have decided that while "Backyard Jam" might be one of the most upbeat, topical soca songs of recent times, it's "See Dem" which has proliferated as my internal soundtrack to lockdown slowly being lifted in the UK. The lack of drums gives it an airiness and a floatiness akin to spring days, meeting up with friends in parks and gardens. Is there a word for a current thing which makes you feel nostalgic for the present? Cos that's how I feel about "See Dem", it's like a postcard of right now.

still on lockdown here in Montreal, but that's a nice post dl

and Drunk History is great! thanks for posting that

“See Dem” gives me the feels too. the irony being that the song is about people who are *not* your friends

btw, dog latin, from a different thread, but have you heard Busy’s “Bring Rum”? it has the exact same vibe you just described imo

worth reposting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh_SpwmQj2M

Ola's "Riddim We Want" is pretty banging:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdHzgXZqVU8

him and System32 have a somewhat similar borderline chaotic vintage makeover tune too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDEBYQFZpo8

"Don't Stop Carnival"

I swore I already posted this (it's on the same riddim as MM's Private Party), but Skinny Fabulous's "Act Normal" also works as an opening up anthem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etxx6GsfSRQ

Xps yes it only just struck me how antisocial "See Dem" is. I don't pay attention to lyrics on first or second pass so I'm actually a bit disappointed that this song I'd attributed to "yearning" (and I know there's a Trini word for this specific feeling which I can't remember right now) is actually about distrust and solipsism. Never mind, it's lovely.
And yes, "Bring Rum" is fantastic

you're probably thinking of "tabanca"

btw, I'm listening to Bring Rum again and liking it a lot more than the other day (my pop music ears have been messed up by pandemic/lockdown is my theory)

"Tabanca" was what I was thinking. It was on the tip of my tongue and yet it kept reaching for "parang", lol

"Drunk History" is so much fun. Soca's killing it right now, but I guess it always is

Apparently this is from 2019 so might be old news to some of you, but it's worth posting about since it's the first time I'm detecting an SA house vibe on a soca riddim.

Here's the Bantu Village Riddim mix:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpKiv8eu2B0

Orlando Octave – Beauty
Marlon Asher – Party Started
Benjai - Say What They Want
Lady Lava – Feeling Away
Shea Shea – Love Come Down
Dale Ryan - Give Thanks

WE GOIN' ALL DAAAAAY
JACK BAUER DEM CALLIN' WE

(lol just caught that second verse)

Looooool didn't notice that

'All Day' sounds better every time I hear it

Also, every time Machel on "High Life" sings: "Hope you have a good day and everything is o...kay", it hits me so hard in the feels I get pinpricks behind my eyes.

I like the occasional steel drum pings on the Machel Montano cut too. Some of his flow and melodies just hit you, as noted .

Saw him live some years back and it was a great late night gig. While some soca acts just tour using backing tracks , he had a full band . Big crowd and lots of energy. Montano had lots of charisma onstage

not really hearing the SA house in the Bantu Village Riddim, but I love it just the same!

(when it starts I'm immediately reminded of the beat on Iyanya's "Kukere" tho)

(xps to dog latin)

also, can I get an amen for Olatunji's "Riddim We Want"? such a joyous banger, with a true carnival of sounds in the mix

it’s heresy, I know, but for my own convenience/pleasure more than anything I made an integrated Rolling playlist for all the Caribbean music threads (soca, dancehall, reggaeton/dembow/urbano, Martinique, other caribbopop). we’re 72 tracks in, feel free to follow:

ILM rolling Caribbean vibes 🥁🥁🥁

I like your brand of heresy, breastcrawl.

ha some years I combine my soca & dancehall playlists and sometimes I don't, though that's more just to keep things manageable

I'm not sure how I missed longneck posting it in March, but MM's "High Life" is great!

Bantu Village: this was new to me but really lovely, but not sure I should be trusted here as I pretty much like every single afro-soca riddim I've ever heard lol. I do think I hear what you mean by SA house, dog latin, though the *thump* is super muted

Olatunji put out like half a dozen classics this season iirc

catching up on those Olatunji classics:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOx9es8EyaY
Olatunji ft. Good Times Ahead • Black Liberation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj3NPFvo9Qo
Olatunji ft. System32 • Doing It

guy is *creative*

oh wow I'd missed "Black Liberation" -- that is fire

This super-minimal mashup of Meri Makhna Meri Soniya and Buni Garlin's Big Bad Soca is pretty cool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ktdjvCfGXA

nice remix

yeah, very dope

I read something somewhere suggesting that my old-school fave David Rudder might release something new. I think he lives in Toronto now

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/barbados-queen-republic-ceremony-prince-charles-rcna6901?fbclid=IwAR3DMjpw2NW8XpGa_wjCNY-jKIrwwUo-tlRVyvLPeLy07uyj_0ORvsx_7Zw

Barbados cuts ties with the Queen and celebrates

Any soca in 2021 best of lists?

Here we go!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IOPlFMYi_c

That was "DECORATE" by 2MV & Keshav

Everything I hear by Aisha Noel I love, and "The Realest Thing" is no exception

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lKx_U-X6jI

oh I love that Noel track

the fete is over here right now (bring your own rum!):

where's d'scene? rolling soca, chutney, jab & other caribbean pop