Culture

When Bob Marley died in 1981, it was a tragedy, but no one thought it would be the end of reggae music -- in fact, in retrospect it marked the beginning of reggae's explosion as an international phenomenon. But the death in 2006 of Joseph Hill, founder and leader of the legendary harmony trio Culture throughout the group's 30-year career, felt like the end of an era. Though listeners occasionally still hear from the Mighty Diamonds and maybe the Gladiators, there's no question that the time of the harmony trio is over, and Hill's passing punctuated that fact like the last stroke of a hammer on a coffin nail. Now comes the flood of "final" recordings, and roots fans will welcome every one of them. This one is actually a sort of maxi-single, a six-track showcase featuring multiple mixes and versions of the Hill composition "Raw Truth." It opens with the "Queen's Radio Edit," the most conventional and radio-ready of the six, then segues into the slightly more muscular rockers beat of the "King's Radio Edit." Things don't get really interesting until the third track, an extended mix featuring typically brilliant toasting from Culture's contemporary Big Youth; the fourth is another DJ cut featuring the younger but scarcely less skillful Daddy Rings. The instrumental dub mix is then featured on its own, followed by a completely superfluous "A Cappella" mix that consists of nothing but Hill's voice stripped out of its instrumental context, complete with long gaps of silence. This disc will mainly be of interest to completists, but there are lots of them out there. ~ Rick Anderson, All Music Guide