Epic & Ting

Album review

Inspired by producer-driven albums from artists like Calvin Harris and David Guetta, former Fat Eyes beatmaker Bulby York broke from his usual crew and went solo with this aptly titled debut. Epic & Ting delivers reggae, ragga, and dancehall instead of Harris and Guetta's EDM, but York's been a reggae futurist since his days in Fat Eyes, and many of the beats here come from the cutting edge of clubland. "Babylon Shame" with Anthony Red Rose is a Damian Marley-like protest number that Skrillex, Diplo, and the whole Mad Decent roster will envy as it musically strolls through '90s R&B, video game soundtracks, and grinding, chaotic trap music. Busy Signal's jittery "Streets" is filled with impossible horn blasts as the MC shoots out lyrics like a sputtering AK-47, while the cuts with Maxi Priest ("All Night Long") and Beres Hammond plus Bounty Killer ("Anything Goes") are properly slicked up for radio and anchor the album as highlights. Traditional tones come when mystic Sizzla gets a rightfully simmering modern reggae tune, while "Whom Shall I Fear" casts Tenor Saw and Assassin as Studio One artists in the '60s. Maverick Lee "Scratch" Perry opens Bob Marley's "Soul Almighty" with "All right all you happy people out there" and then bright, boisterous ska makes the track one that Sublime, Prince Buster, and Specials fans can all agree on. If deep reverb and dank dub are required, Lutan Fyah's "Held Down" is echoing bliss. Bulby is an inventive producer who always gives his singers something they can naturally groove on. Epic & Ting is filled with prime examples, and while the death of Fat Eyes shall be mourned, this first phoenix to rise from the ashes wipes away quite a bit of that hurt.

© David Jeffries /TiVo