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November 23rd, 2008
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Reggae explosion

A growing Czech audience is rockin' to Jamaican rhythms

By Darrell Jónsson
For The Prague Post
July 30th, 2008 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Švihadlo, one of the many bands playing at Real Beat next week, was among the first local groups formed after the revolution in response to the growing appetite for authentic reggae and ska sounds.
Real Beat


When: Aug. 8 and 9
Where: Piškona Oplatil, Staré Ždánice (near Pardubice)
Tickets: 495 Kč, available through Ticketpro, Ticketstream and Ticketportal
For more information on the festival, check www.realbeat.cz
For updates on the Czech reggae scene, check www.reggae.cz and www.reggaemusic.cz

Water washes along the perfect white sand while Swamp Safari Sound System members DJ Kaya and Vincent Richards mix reggae, dancehall and dub to commemorate the 116th birthday of Rastafarian hero Emperor Haile Selassie. As dreadlocked heads bob to rhythms in the balmy nighttime breeze, the roofs and domes of the Prague skyline sit serenely across the Vltava River.
It may be three decades since Bob Marley and the Wailers welded R&B and Jamaican ska into one of the 20th century’s most infectious popular music forms, but here at the Smíchovská plaž beach bar in Prague 5, reggae is fresh and alive. In fact, the feeling among local fans and artists is that the reggae groundswell has just begun.
Taking a break from the turntables, Jamaican expat DJ/singer Richards recounts the late ’80s, when the scene “started with foreign students going to hostel parties and then small reggae clubs.” This is a stark contrast to the reggae scene today, he says, “when we have festivals for 6,000 to 12,000 people.”
Czech DJ and reggae promoter Admiral [aka Lukáš] Kolíbal agrees, recalling Reggae Meeting in Točník in May this year, where there were more promising new reggae artists than he had seen in the festival’s previous seven years. And, over the past 12 months, he notes, top Jamaican artists Sizzla Kalonji, Daddy Rings, Max Romeo and Don Carlos all made their debuts in Prague.
“What is more significant is that at nearly at all major [Czech] rock festivals, there is now at least always one reggae act,” he says, “which tells us that even the promoters are realizing that reggae and ska have an audience. It’s taken us years to convince them.”
Mazurkas and polkas
The Czech reggae scene’s relatively recent path from cult to popular appeal may not seem like news to those who experienced the ’70s reggae explosion in the West, led by artists like Bob Marley and the Wailers, Peter Tosh and Gregory Issacs. But few people in the former Eastern bloc heard reggae before 1989, except on West German radio broadcasts or  black market records and cassettes.
In the late ’80s and early ’90s, according to Kolíbal and Richards, groups like Švihadlo, Babalet and Hypnotix began to satisfy a niche interest in Jamaican sounds. Swamp Safari Sound System also helped build an audience with pirate radio broadcasts, but the going was slow.
“I joined one of the early Czech reggae bands, and they were playing a lot of mazurkas and polkas,” Richards recalls with a laugh. “We struggled, but now we are playing something similar to what Jamaicans play. And new bands have risen on the scene, like United Flavour, Afrodisiak, Mr. Cocoman, Baraka and many others.”
These bands bring new sensitivity and diversity to the form, and the benefit of world travel. Reggae activists like DJ Kaya and Kolíbal have been to Jamaica, and for those who can’t get there, vast downloadable music sources are available on the Internet. And music is not the only attraction to reggae.
“A majority of young people come to reggae for the lifestyle similar to what you see in Jamaica — the dreadlocks, the colors, the smoking of marijuana and so on,” Richards says. “But the older guard came to reggae not because of the philosophical outlook, but because of the music. They are playing it, trying to understand it and develop it. They go to reggae festivals in Holland, Germany and elsewhere to study what is happening and bring it forward.”
Feeling the joy
Prominent in pushing the local scene forward have been King Kalabash and Baron Black, from Martinique. Known in Europe for their Parisian-based project Big Famili, Black and Kalabash have been regulars on the regional Czech reggae circuit since 2003.
Cutting their teeth in the late ’80s as part of Martinque’s competitive and demanding urban sound system scene, Big Famili gives a nod of respect to the ’70s roots of reggae while mixing in hip-hop, electronics and dance-hall styles. Kalabash feels the messages found in reggae have a special appeal to many Central Europeans, due to a history of oppression they share with parts of the Caribbean.
“When there was slavery in the West Indies, we would play percussion and dance and tried to speak in a way the masters could not understand,” he explains. “I can imagine in communist times it was something like the West Indies’ colonial experience. People here are less concerned if people have money or not, not like in France where they have so much and still cry and cry and cry. That’s why I love the Czechs, because you can feel this sort of joy in people, which is something they are losing in big countries like France, England and the United States.”
This grass-roots freshness was in the air at the Reggae Ethnic Session in Česká Lípa in June, where Czech bands like Zion Squad, M.Y. Music, Nebiba and the Urban Bushman shared the stage with native Caribbean acts like Big Famili and Son Caliente. The musical mix included percussion-driven Afro-Cuban, marimba Afro-beat, brassy ska, hip-hop and Latino reggaeton. Underneath Rasta red, gold, green and black banners, sound system booths thumped roots reggae and dancehall beats.  
With the upcoming Real Beat festival, and regular dub, reggae and dancehall events at places like Prague’s Palác Akropolis and Cross Club, there are plenty of opportunities to enjoy the local spin on roots rhythm. And don’t be surprised if you hear something new in the mix, as reggae finds an open season as wide as the Atlantic Ocean in 21st-century Central Europe.

Darrell Jónsson can be reached at tempo@praguepost.com


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