.::GUIDELIGHT MOVEMENT::.

REVIEW: SHEYA MISSION - Never Let Me Down (Gold Heart Music)

Gold Heart Music is a fairly new label out of Stockholm, Sweden who recently brought themself international attention by releasing two seven inch singles with the Jamaican singer Daweh Congo ("Steppin" and "Ganja Baby").

This is Sheya Mission's second release on Gold Heart Music. The first one was the double A-side single "Valley/Take Me To The Hills" who recently have been repressed to furthur promote Sheya Mission since the first release was done several years ago. Sheya Mission have distinguished herself on the Swedish reggae scene as quite a shy yet charismatic singer. Altough she have been around for a long time doing the occasional stage show her output of music have been very slim. Hopefully we will hear more from this deeply rooted female singer in time to come, since I know from her performances she have great potential.

From what recently came to my attention "Never Let Me Down" was a dubplate for the swedish sound system Meditative Sounds at first and have now been reworked over a new rhythm produced by Jonah Gold. "Never Let Me Down" is a slow and mellow one drop tune with a ambient dub kind of feel to it. It took me a few listenings to get into it while the chorus stuck right away. Just like the tune Sheya Mission sings slow and mellow with ease and assurance of that Jah will never her down. Swedish reggae guitarist ZilverZurf adds his skill of guitar play on the track as well which fits right into the picture of sounds provided by Jonah Gold. At the end of the tune a bass drum comes in and changes the pace from the one drop to a stepper which kind of gets me interested of a full steppers version of the tune as well.

Soundclip - Sheya Mission - Never Let Me Down

Apart from the ambient dub feel there's also a hint of oriental vibes in the mix which really comes out on the B-side's Worldbeat mix. Here we have the tune in a different style which sounds much like stripped down rai music. Rai being music hailing from northern Africa with a marked backbeat similar to modern dancehall. Due to the pumping beat and the additional drums on this version the tune gets more of a uptempo feel it which gives this version great crossover appeal. All to all a good release from Sheya Mission and Gold Heart Music with potential to make impact on the reggae as well as the world music market.

/Jakob Levi 1/10-05