Best of 2025 – Goldfinger
By Folk Department
Goldfinger hosts Reggae Vibrations Saturdays from 12-2pm.
Reggae Vibrations Best of 2025: A Rising Tide
Jesse Royal, No Place Like Home (Easy Star)
Grammy-nominated return (four years since the release of the remarkable debut, “Royal”), anchored in the roots and culture tradition that only a talented, visionary artist can forward.
The bible-school hymn, (this little ) “Little Light Of Mine” is a standout:
Mortimer, From Within (Easy Star) His debut, “Fight The Fight”, set the tone for his melodic, subtle delivery… but, the lyrics were always carrying a Big Stick. No wonder this was selected as another Grammy nomination… this song got the most airplay on Reggae Vibes:
The welcome return of John Brown’s Body, once again fronted by Kevin Kinsella on lead vocals, resulted in three massive singles, not yet complied into an album: “40000 Years”, “A Little Bit Of Some”, and my favorite anthem of the year “Hard Fight”. Killer artwork accompanies all three, another Easy Star flourish…
An interesting cross-pollination of musicians and production from JBB and 10 Foot Ganja Plant (also a Kinsella project) resulted in excellent backup for the emerging talent Double Tiger (appearing with Mighty Joshua on Feb 8th at Richmond’s The Broadberry). Smooth vocals reminiscent of the Late, great Dennis Brown. His first offering of the year, “Yearning” was followed up by the remarkable “Love Garden”
Flying Vipers, Off World (Easy Star) and the dub companion World Inversion were yet more revelations from Easy Star in 2025. Deep roots musicianship and sweet, soaring vocals (Kellee Webb) with intent.
Hamburg-based Echo Beach Records has also been a steady source of talent and testaments. Most notable is Don Letts’ pulsating production of various artists with The Rebel Dread @ Echo Beach. Amongst the standout tracks is Dub Cartel’s “One People”.
Labelmates Noiseshaper (Berlin) returned with Welcome The Unknown… “Fly Up” (feat. vocals of Simple Straw) a broadcast favorite.
LA’s F-Spot Records, fueled by their amazing rhythm section Night Owls (featuring members of the Lions and the Aggrolites) has been churning out exceptional singles throughout the year with a fine roster of vocalists, especially with Alex Désert (ex-The Lions and Hepcat) on their re-imagining of Aaron Neville’s “Hercules” and Marcus I Meets aDUBta, mining authentic roots reggae sound with “Listen Up My Son”… both featured on the just-released compilation Versions II.
Last, but certainly not least, Daptone Records, long ago cementing their and R&B bonafides, stepped up with recent explorations into rock steady/reggae with Leon Dinero, Johnny Ruiz and the Escapers… and, most notably Judah Eskender Tafari and new phenomenon Jalen Ngonda brought it home for 2025 .
