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Midnite
Ainshant Maps
Afrikan Roots Lab
2004
Midnite - Ainshant Maps

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Ainshant Maps is the most recent installment of Midnite from Afrikan Roots Lab.   All of the tracks on this brilliant album are outstanding and will have listeners running off to the library to delve further into the topics Vaughn exposes with his poignant lyrics. 

Track List Liner Notes Reviews Buy CD Real Audio Stream
Midnite - Ainshant Maps Buy CD

Track List:

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Real Audio

Real Audio

1. Praise Jah Real Audio 7.

Ainshant Maps

Real Audio
2. Livity Real Audio 8.

Knocka Fia

Real Audio
3. Drought Real Audio 9.

True King

Real Audio
4. Man Tain Real Audio 10.

Breathing Scrolls

Real Audio
5. Abadan Abyss Real Audio 11.

Dub Playt

Real Audio
6. Judgement For Sentence Real Audio 12.

Arose

Real Audio

Liner Notes

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Musicians - Midnite:
Vaughn Benjamin Lead Vocals, Background Vocals, Guitar, Percussion
Ron Benjamin Keyboards, Guitar, Percussion, Background Vocals
Phillip Merchant Bass
Dion Hopkins Drums
Abijah Hicks Guitar

All songs written and performed by Midnite
Produced, Recorded and Engineered by Midnite at Afrikan Roots Lab

Cover Design and Art Direction: Marcus
Back Cover Art: Willimore "Junior" Daniel

Afrikan Roots Lab, Inc.
P.O. Box 8433, Sunny Isle
St. Croix, VI  00823
(340) 692-5613

More Music From Midnite

Midnite - Ainshant Maps Midnite - Scheme A Things
Midnite - Intense Pressure Midnite - Seek Knowledge Before Vengeance
Midnite - Jubilees Of Zion Midnite - Jubilees Of Zion
Midnite - Ras Mek Peace Midnite - Unpolished
Album Reviews
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I'm a big music fan, and listen to all types of music, but have a special love for reggae. The first album I ever heard was Bob Marley's "Survival" when I was just 9, and it introduced me to a new world...a protest against the oppression of the black people and a cry for the unity of black people in Africa, Jamaica, and the rest of planet earth. I was instantly captivated.

Now comes Midnite's Ainshant Maps, and they have expanded on this vision with an album that re-defines "rebel music." Midnite manages to make one of the best reggae albums of all time, topping even their own, unbelievably great catalog. Resistance, rebellion, and rejection of Western philosophy are themes which, if you're familiar with Midnite, should not come as a surprise.

"Ainshant Maps" is also musically and rhythmically perfect, and its fueled by the same rage that Marley sung about so long ago. In "Livity," Vaughn Benjamin sets the tone: "Look Ya See. look and see. Me no shy about nothing weh a pain me. For as long as ghetto people still a hear me."

In "Abadan Abyss" he rejects Western religions: "Drastically resistant to Rome. With them christian demographics. Them falsify blue eye the black christ with them ethics. Them still pon them state. Them still have the false image, deceiving the nations with it. Deceiving the nations with it. In a de lying pathological chronic epidemic. The sermon is a death threat clinic. Talking bout the devil's system, and them working for it. Man who standing up against it getting hurt for it."

"True King" rails against the glorification of violence in the greco-roman/Judeo-Christian tradition: "Everything fe dem a gunnery, riddle is a word or shot, same time, softly, Literary canon dem a tell you literally. Magazine could be reading or a rifle steady."

"Judgement for Sentence" expands further on the price one pays for going against the grain: "So who testified at my secret trial. So who amplified when your digits were dialed. No. I'm not innocent nor guilty no. Hypocrisy judgmental is the plea I enter."

The consistency of "Ainshant Maps" puts it over the top. Soulfully mixing elements of roots and dancehall, Vaughn is at the absolute peak of his vocal powers, and brother Ron Benjamin has never produced a musically finer album. Going from smooth one drop roots to more organic sounds, the shift is seamless.

The result is stunning, and never more evident on "Knocka Fia", a great tune with a slow, sinister skank, crazy dub effects, and then Vaughn coming in with: "Me never stop praise Jah me six string Yamaha. Please fe tell I who blood seed you is working for. You get burned in you tell you knocka fia. Look it to Jah house as a first time buyer."

The allegory and poetry that Vaughn uses while never repeating himself is amazing. Especially given the trite lyrics and pop stylings of so many other roots bands.

ainshantmapssquiggle.jpg (3693 bytes)Somewhere, Bob Marley is smiling.

  - Jdubbs

Reggae Reviews:
Ainshant Maps
can be seen as a companion piece to Scheme a Things – and if you had to choose, this would be the more vital of the two (although they’re priced moderately enough that you can get both).  It starts a bit slow – literally and figuratively – with the minimalist acoustic guitar of “Praise Jah,” but quickly picks up with blistering roots tracks like “Drought,” “Judgement for Sentence,” “True King,” “Ainshant Maps,” and my personal fave, “Knocka Fia.” - More

 

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