Beres Hammond

Beres Hammond - Love Has No Boundaries - VP

A major part of the reggae scene now for coming up to 20 years - Beres is now
able to see the big picture where the music is concerned - and if reggae music needs anything today its stablity. Crossover does not work, and never will work - with a music with such a complex dna as reggae music - its not easy to add something to it without changing it into something else - which is pointless. So what you get here is a solid album of mainly loves songs with some reality messages as well - all set to a solid reggae beat. The occasional ballard is not a problem, never was. Guest artists on the set include Big Youth, and Buju Banton, those two tracks are very good.

Yet the jewel in the crown of this magnificent set - is 'Feel Love' which is set to a spikey kind of reggae rhythm - and is a great song. While the best track is 'Not Over Til It's Done' a song that could have come out of Dennis Brown's or Gregory Isaacs reality songbook its the sort of song that made reggae music what it is, and if ever to become the voice of the poor again its the type of song that will need to come forward again in these troubled times.

Over the years Beres as built up a good fan base, and this set Will not disappoint them. Its got all the usual trademarks, good songs, and a very smooth production. His singing is now stronger, and that appeals to me a lot. Its still soulful but you can hear a lot more reggae in it. That might not make much sense but you only have to listen to people like Gregory and Dennis to know that there is soul and JamaicanSoul - and what Beres is doing these days puts him into that catagory - before he was just a very good soul singer!!!

Beres Hammond- Xterminator. Still unreleased but when this one finally comes out it should break the man to a much bigger audience. This album represents the genius of Fatis production style at its very best. Rather than keep Beres into his much loved soul style, he's pointed him in a new direction which could only be described as folk, with a strong reggae base. One track is almost Irish in production style. With Luciano - Fatis showed what could be done with such a voice. He's done it again with Beres, the big break both deserve awaits them.

When it comes to love songs, the best ones all seem to have a touch of reality. This is why singers like Gregory Isaacs and Dennis Brown have been so successful over the years. In recent years tough with things and time getting so hard, people don't really want to know about reality even in love songs. So they have turned to singers who can supply an emotional experience without involving the listener at all. Beres Hammond as been the most successful artist so far within this style, Pure sweetness.

Five years or so on, and Beres is now a big star. Yet you can't help wondering if he would be even bigger if he started to work with producers who would encourage him to sing more interesting songs. Gregory Isaacs said many years ago that love is a reality. And love songs still make up at least 50% of the subject material for most reggae singers, but listening to Beres's songs and the soft production built around them could send someone into emotional shock! This man needs help, in more ways than one.