Jhazahra – Headline – Review

March 26, 2024

Jhazahra: Headline Single Review by Mr Topple for Pauzeradio.com.

Jamaican songstress Jhazahra brings life to the latest riddim from Iffa Cush – and it should be making the headlines.

Headline, released via Iffa Cush Muzik Group, sees Jhazahra take on the Kaya Blazing Riddim from Jamaican producer Cush. The overall mastering of the track is slick – honing in on the deep and unsettling sound that the composition provides so well.

Headline is a deep dive into brooding, resonant Roots. Across the track some traditional musical devices are in play. The bass runs a drop-beat rhythm. It’s rich and played well-down its register with a fluid sound that weaves around the track. Meanwhile, keys run a bubble rhythm, interestingly in the mid-range of their register – again, adding to the brooding feeling of Headline. Drums perform a rough one drop, with the kick accenting the two and four along with the snare, while hi-hats fill the spaces in between.

There’s some interesting additional instrumentation, too. Central to Headline but away from the rhythm section is a delicate xylophone, that runs an occasional melody in the background. Strings perform an elongated line that generally hovers around one note, or up or down a tone from here. There’s some pleasing use of a heavily engineered synth horn line, which rasps at points with a countermelody.

There’s some nice work across the engineering, too. Of note is the attention to the dB levels – with the bass being dominant, but additional instrumentation like the strings also sent to the front, providing balance between the low and high kHz sounds. The use of reverb across the musical and vocal lines is good as well – nodding to Dub but not overly delving into it.

Then, Jhazahra’s vocal complements all this perfectly. She has a pleasing contralto voice – not quite an alto but nor a proper soprano. Instead, she sits somewhere in between which lends her voice perfectly to this style of forthright, potent Roots. She swings between a competent singjay on the verses – where complex and rapid rhythms are combined with some keen attention to detail across the melodies, and perfect enunciation – and a straighter vocal on the chorus where Jhazahra delivers a memorable line that is well enunciated and expressive to boot. Lyrically, Jhazahra has created a veritable anthem around perseverance in the face of Babylon’s mendacity – reminding us to keep going regardless of what is thrown at us.

Then, there’s also a Dub version of Headline. Here, Jhazahra’s vocal is stripped back completely at points – evocatively leaving drums and the bass central, with the other instrumentation jutting in and out. The use of reverb here is hard – bringing something almost otherworldly to the track.

Overall, Headline and its Dub are solid pieces of work from Cush and Jhazahra. Pertinent, moody, and smooth, the tracks are well constructed, Jhazahra is on point, and they show the talents of both very well.