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Zarko · 04-16-2009, 03:38 AM

What Happened – Bim Sherman (1998)

GENRES – Raggae, World

Heaven – 3:51
Earth People – 3:41
Guilty – 3:28
What Happened – 3:48
Keep On Trying – 3:57
Cool Down The Pressure – 3:58
Let The Spirit Move You – 3:20
Don’t Crucify My Love – 3:43
So Jah Say – 4:23
Truth – 3:53
Seven Times To Rise And Fall – 3:58
Queen of Hearts – 3:49

I have never been huge on reggae, but Bim Sherman was always a personal favourite purely due to his sublime vocal performance and willingness to explore more than just the pure roots and reggae sound that has plagued the genre in its ‘generic glory’ for a while. ‘What Happened’ carries an ethereal and poignant mood throughout and at times borrows so heavily from other genres that it is hard to classify as reggae. The album is calm, it doesn’t get the blood pumping, or the feet moving, but it’s just a beautifully touching and simple album, anchored by Sherman’s vocals. Sherman passed away in 2000, at the age of 50.

‘Heaven’ is the sort of opening track that makes you question whether I should really be labelling this album as reggae. It has such a strong ‘world’ sound, particularly with a strong Indian influence. It is a transcendent song, ethereal and light in nature, it is capable of holding someone in sway in its gorgeous simplicity and it helps when Sherman is in stunning form. Sherman’s previous album was a little too reggae-experimental, but Heaven gives a great sign to the rest of the album. It has a great balance between the reggae sound fans want and the experimentalism Sherman and the producers wished to commit to, and the result is this top track.

‘Earth People’ carries over this combination of this pensive world-reggae, and it is wonderfully intertwined with some roots rhythm and violin, along with Sherman’s lyricism, make this a true roots piece. It has a space-psychedelic dub sound going on at times, which is a pretty interesting touch. When the violin is singled out, it is also a treat, almost adding an Asian factor to the roots sound. It’s enough like the opening track to maintain that interest, whilst offering enough variation to make it sound not overly similar. ‘Guilty’ is a more hard edged turn from the delicate to a more reggae sharp tone, and it’s a nice change up. It is still not the type of song to get you jumping but it’s more of a head mover than the previous tracks. The backing vocalists also add a nice tinge of a bubbly pulse.

The title track, ‘What Happened’, is an amalgamation of a lot of small elements to make a grand result. The base is a distinct reggae beat, but it is overlaid with some traditional Indian elements and instrumentation, as well as some bluesy guitar picking. The roots feel lost, but still in a good way. There is also some heavily electronic beats layered along with some more moving backing vocalists. As always, Sherman’s vocals just take everything up a notch and this is another particularly stand out performance. It is fairly impossible to purely call this anything, whether that is reggae, world, blues or whatever, but nonetheless, it is content in itself.

‘Keep On Trying’ continues the blues base with a very traditional sounding riff. It is more electric than a normal roots acoustic sound, and along with the drumming creates a much more morose atmosphere, despite the upbeat drumming. ‘Cool Down The Pressure’ once again has a greater emphasis on the guitar, but the overall tone is very much reggae, mainly due to the vocals and lyricism. It’s structured well, and is pleasing on the ears, without being anything too extravagant. It’s the sort of song you know is nothing special, but you still like nonetheless.

‘Let The Spirit Move You’ dabbles in a bit of everything. It offers a variation of mood within itself, changing from deep and almost dark vocals to bright, as well as presenting a hint of worldliness and blues guitar to intensify the mood. It is another powerful track on the album, and probably one of the more movement inducing pieces on the album as a whole. It has that wavy beauty, which is only made better by Sherman’s vocals. ‘Don’t Crucify My Love’ has an almost classical reggae feel, primarily due to the heavy utilisation of a strings group to make the base of the song. It really is a change I loved, because it’s not normally something I have experienced within the reggae genre. If you were to ignore the reggae sound, it would almost be close to a ‘generic love song’ (In the most positive sense possible

) and the consequence is just a pleasant listen, which changes things up on the album a bit.

‘So Jah Say’ is a synth heavy reggae track, which is another interesting amalgamation in itself. It’s almost too poppy at times but it is still interesting enough not to skip, and isn’t a massive detriment to the album overall. Worth a listen, but the album offers up much more in my opinion. ‘Truth’ is flat out my favourite track on the album, with a profound blues/reggae combination. It has some classic delta-blues sound, and Sherman is in dazzling form, as well as having its own distinct eastern dashes here and there. A song much better experienced than anything else. Perhaps I love it because I am in a blues mood recently, but either way, it’s all quality.

‘Seven Times To Rise And Fall’ is a return to psychedelic dub form, with the Indian elements back at it’s strongest. It contains a very romantic sound as well as not being overly dramatic as it possibly could have turned out to be. ‘Queen of Hearts’ signals the end of the album with a fine, simple reggae ditty.

What really carry this album are Sherman’s quality vocals, with a light and sweet sound that are perfect for this sort of reggae. Despite being 60ish minutes, it doesn’t feel like its dragging itself, probably due to the light and ‘fluffy’ nature of the album overall. The ideas and production is also top notch, as a chord is struck in regards to the balance between the roots reggae sound of Bim and the worldly, blues sounds that are used to flesh out the songs as a whole, to stop the album being overly ‘generic’. It’s definitely an album any reggae fan should check out, and even fans of down tempo vocalists.

TOTAL SCORE

8.1/10

- Heaven
- Truth

04-16-2009, 03:38 AM	#50 (permalink)
Zarko Barely Disheveled Zombie Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Australia Posts: 1,196	What Happened – Bim Sherman (1998) GENRES – Raggae, World Heaven – 3:51 Earth People – 3:41 Guilty – 3:28 What Happened – 3:48 Keep On Trying – 3:57 Cool Down The Pressure – 3:58 Let The Spirit Move You – 3:20 Don’t Crucify My Love – 3:43 So Jah Say – 4:23 Truth – 3:53 Seven Times To Rise And Fall – 3:58 Queen of Hearts – 3:49 I have never been huge on reggae, but Bim Sherman was always a personal favourite purely due to his sublime vocal performance and willingness to explore more than just the pure roots and reggae sound that has plagued the genre in its ‘generic glory’ for a while. ‘What Happened’ carries an ethereal and poignant mood throughout and at times borrows so heavily from other genres that it is hard to classify as reggae. The album is calm, it doesn’t get the blood pumping, or the feet moving, but it’s just a beautifully touching and simple album, anchored by Sherman’s vocals. Sherman passed away in 2000, at the age of 50. ‘Heaven’ is the sort of opening track that makes you question whether I should really be labelling this album as reggae. It has such a strong ‘world’ sound, particularly with a strong Indian influence. It is a transcendent song, ethereal and light in nature, it is capable of holding someone in sway in its gorgeous simplicity and it helps when Sherman is in stunning form. Sherman’s previous album was a little too reggae-experimental, but Heaven gives a great sign to the rest of the album. It has a great balance between the reggae sound fans want and the experimentalism Sherman and the producers wished to commit to, and the result is this top track. ‘Earth People’ carries over this combination of this pensive world-reggae, and it is wonderfully intertwined with some roots rhythm and violin, along with Sherman’s lyricism, make this a true roots piece. It has a space-psychedelic dub sound going on at times, which is a pretty interesting touch. When the violin is singled out, it is also a treat, almost adding an Asian factor to the roots sound. It’s enough like the opening track to maintain that interest, whilst offering enough variation to make it sound not overly similar. ‘Guilty’ is a more hard edged turn from the delicate to a more reggae sharp tone, and it’s a nice change up. It is still not the type of song to get you jumping but it’s more of a head mover than the previous tracks. The backing vocalists also add a nice tinge of a bubbly pulse. The title track, ‘What Happened’, is an amalgamation of a lot of small elements to make a grand result. The base is a distinct reggae beat, but it is overlaid with some traditional Indian elements and instrumentation, as well as some bluesy guitar picking. The roots feel lost, but still in a good way. There is also some heavily electronic beats layered along with some more moving backing vocalists. As always, Sherman’s vocals just take everything up a notch and this is another particularly stand out performance. It is fairly impossible to purely call this anything, whether that is reggae, world, blues or whatever, but nonetheless, it is content in itself. ‘Keep On Trying’ continues the blues base with a very traditional sounding riff. It is more electric than a normal roots acoustic sound, and along with the drumming creates a much more morose atmosphere, despite the upbeat drumming. ‘Cool Down The Pressure’ once again has a greater emphasis on the guitar, but the overall tone is very much reggae, mainly due to the vocals and lyricism. It’s structured well, and is pleasing on the ears, without being anything too extravagant. It’s the sort of song you know is nothing special, but you still like nonetheless. ‘Let The Spirit Move You’ dabbles in a bit of everything. It offers a variation of mood within itself, changing from deep and almost dark vocals to bright, as well as presenting a hint of worldliness and blues guitar to intensify the mood. It is another powerful track on the album, and probably one of the more movement inducing pieces on the album as a whole. It has that wavy beauty, which is only made better by Sherman’s vocals. ‘Don’t Crucify My Love’ has an almost classical reggae feel, primarily due to the heavy utilisation of a strings group to make the base of the song. It really is a change I loved, because it’s not normally something I have experienced within the reggae genre. If you were to ignore the reggae sound, it would almost be close to a ‘generic love song’ (In the most positive sense possible ) and the consequence is just a pleasant listen, which changes things up on the album a bit. ‘So Jah Say’ is a synth heavy reggae track, which is another interesting amalgamation in itself. It’s almost too poppy at times but it is still interesting enough not to skip, and isn’t a massive detriment to the album overall. Worth a listen, but the album offers up much more in my opinion. ‘Truth’ is flat out my favourite track on the album, with a profound blues/reggae combination. It has some classic delta-blues sound, and Sherman is in dazzling form, as well as having its own distinct eastern dashes here and there. A song much better experienced than anything else. Perhaps I love it because I am in a blues mood recently, but either way, it’s all quality. ‘Seven Times To Rise And Fall’ is a return to psychedelic dub form, with the Indian elements back at it’s strongest. It contains a very romantic sound as well as not being overly dramatic as it possibly could have turned out to be. ‘Queen of Hearts’ signals the end of the album with a fine, simple reggae ditty. What really carry this album are Sherman’s quality vocals, with a light and sweet sound that are perfect for this sort of reggae. Despite being 60ish minutes, it doesn’t feel like its dragging itself, probably due to the light and ‘fluffy’ nature of the album overall. The ideas and production is also top notch, as a chord is struck in regards to the balance between the roots reggae sound of Bim and the worldly, blues sounds that are used to flesh out the songs as a whole, to stop the album being overly ‘generic’. It’s definitely an album any reggae fan should check out, and even fans of down tempo vocalists. TOTAL SCORE 8.1/10 - Heaven - Truth Last edited by Zarko; 09-18-2009 at 07:08 AM.