Title
Artist
Label
Format
Date

 So Much Reasons
Ziggi Recado
Kingstone Records-Groove Attack
CD
April 13, 2007

Track list
  1. Intro (Party Starter)
  2. In My Head feat. Shanaira Rey
  3. All Obstacles feat. House Of Riddim
  4. There Again feat. Shyrock
  5. Love Jones feat. Lovey
  6. War On Guns (Interlude)
  7. High Time
  8. Call Me
  9. Inna Mi Bed feat. Elephant Man
  10. Outta Control
  11. The Breakdown (Interlude)
  12. So Much Reasons
  13. Notorious (Remix) feat. Turbulence
  14. Gyals Dem (Interlude)
  15. Girls
  16. Strictly Hot Gyal
  17. All My Girls feat. Mega D
  18. Screw Face
  19. Push Myself feat. IVA
  20. Yin Yan feat. Dos Uno
  21. Empress
  22. Hear Me When I Pray
    Hidden Track
  23. In My Head (Remix) feat. Shanaira Rey
Rate this album!
Cast your vote below.
Essential -Votes: 2-
Very Good -Votes: 5-
Good -Votes: 3-
Average -Votes: 2-
Disappointing -Votes: 0-
A Waste Of Time -Votes: 0-

Total votes : 12
Rating : from 5 (excellent) to 1 (poor)
Vocals : 5 Backing : 4 Production : 4 Sound quality : 5 Sleeve : 3/4
Finally Dutch dancehall hope Ziggi Recado, born March 8, 1981 as Ricardo Blijden, is available at full album length, though born in the Netherlands raised in the Dutch tropics on the sunny island of St. Eustatius, as his 2006 Rock'n'Vibes released debut "So Much Reasons" and his singles have gained him so much attention in dancehalls worldwide but especially in Germany, that Cologne's Kingstone Records has now officially released it in Germany, while it seems that a German soundsystem (even a real top sound) is considered whack without a serious amount of Ziggi Recado dubplates in its box.

After a nice "Intro" Ziggi Recado teams up with his female label-mate Shanaira Rey (also from the Dutch Antilles, but St. Maarten in her case) for the very fine and both in the Netherlands and the UK successful "In My Head". Ziggi Recado already guested with the excellent "Rocky Road" on House Of Riddim's "Chapter II" and recorded another excellent roots tune with the band round Austrian master drummer and producer Sam Gilly included here called "All Obstacles". On "There Again" former Postmen member - nowadays MC alongside DJ Waxfiend - Rollarocka a.k.a. Shyrock is featured in a nice hip hop-reggae combination, before rapping female label-mate Lovey joins Ziggi Recado for "Love Jones".

After the "War On Guns (Interlude) it's time for another tune that gained Ziggi Recado a lot of airplay, the positive roots tune "High Time", not a ganja tune, but a call to end the violence and unite. "Call Me" shows how easy it is for Ziggi Recado to switch between smooth singing on a roots tune and DJ-ing dancehall tunes in the style of Sean Paul. One of dancehall's leading Jamaican DJs joins him on the next tune, with Elephant Man trying to steal the show from Ziggi Recado on the very slack "Inna Mi Bed", but only succeeding half in doing so, followed by the upful "Outta Control" about a girl having the fire inside her getting out of control over a latin-tinged riddim and after "The Breakdown (Interlude)" the beautiful semi-acoustic "So Much Reasons".

The next tune on the album is a combination with Turbulence over Rock'n'Vibes' producer Berteaut 'Mr. Rude' Fleming's remix of Turbulence's reggae charts topping "Notorious (Remix)" that unfortunately adds little to nothing to Turbulence's original. The "Gyals Dem (Interlude)" leads into the album section dedicated to the ladies with the nice dancehall of "Girls", "Strictly Hot Gyal" and Ziggi Recado's great combination "All My Girls" with RMX Crew's Mega D over an oriental flavored dancehall-riddim. The pace slows down again for the very convincing roots tune "Screw Face", before speeding up for "Push Myself", a dancehall combination with IVA followed by the hip hop flavoured combination "Yin Yan" with Dos Uno and the Spanish flamenco guitar featuring "Empress" on which his background vocalists (also when he's performing live) Aldiner Laurent and Nalonia Simon shine next to Ziggi Recado. "Hear Me When I Pray" is a great conscious roots tune, that is followed by the album closing fine remix of "In My Head (Remix)".

Judging by both the House Of Riddim tune included on this album, as well as "Rocky Road" on "House Of Riddim ~ Chapter II", "So Much Reasons" would probably have benefited from more tunes on riddims from more seasoned European producers like Germany's Germaican Records' Pionear, Rootdown's Teka, Kingstone's Lazy Youth, Ganjaman, Switzerland's Ganglords or Scrucialists, Austria's Flip from Texta, although Berteaut 'Mr. Rude' Fleming did a fine job producing the tunes on this album (sometimes in collaboration with Ziggi Recado), a bit of different and more varied approach might provide an even better background for Ziggi Recado's vocals. Ziggi Recado has delivered an extremely satisfying debut album, and proves he has the talent both in his delivery and his songwriting abilities to become the Dutch international reggae and dancehall star. Get this album!

And as proof of the following in Germany and with German sounds, download the free promotional Supersonic "Ziggi Recado - Blaze It" - The Mix CD (also featured on our free downloads page), featuring the very best of Ziggi Recado's debut album "So Much Reasons" as well as some new material. The mix will be part of this years edition of the Festival Guide which is available all over Germany free of charge. Look out for your copy if you want to get this limited edition CD. And if you haven't yet bought Ziggi Recado's album, you should do so now!