There's a meh effect here, the slow tempo, saturated 'epic' production, one note (almost) 808 synth bass. Every aspect - lyrics, production, theme - all hitting the same notes. Danchell was always great at immediacy and contrast.
Finally someone articulated what I've been trying to say. it's ultimately the de-masculinisation (and even de-feminisation) of dancehall to conform to global Americanised diaspora demands. diaspora benzos. the UK doesn't really hold the same amount of sway of being one of the prime consumers of dancehall as it did in the 80s-early 00s.
And ultimately, I had a pretty interesting realisation the other day. I like dark intense dissonant music because one breaks through the abyss to reach gnostic joy and ascend to plateaus that are taken out of reach of most of society. Dionysus vs appollo etc. Speaking strictly personally for me, Barty's music just sounds depressing to me. not in the sense of carrying that mood - tho it can, but because it's not life affirming at all. it's life accepting, which is depressing cos to me that means I don't really need it.
If I may be so brash and use that dichotomy of the 90s, we can also plot a graph like this
appollo
intelligent vs untelligent
Dionysus
(yes i gagged writing that... but you get my drift, replace with conceptual vs immediatist if you must)
My approach is precisely slightly antithetical to that of bliss (and barty's) because I'm intelligent Dionysus. whereas they are intelligent appollo and immediatist Dionysus. For me it's mostly (tho not always) the other way around. I don't really seek contemplative intelligence in meditative or oceanic music etc etc.
For E:
dionysian intelligence:
appollachian immediatism
By far the best track on the album that, but most people seem to disagree. the closest he came to detroit.
immediatism verging into appollachian stupidity.