Major Lazer - Free The Universe - released February 2013 (Mad Decent)

Genre: Dance, Electronic, Dancehall

Regularly loud as hell but equally adept with quieter moments, the producer named Major Lazer who is alternatively named Diplo but also known as Thomas Wesley Pentz crafts some really enjoyable and striking fusions of Jamaican dancehall and extroverted American dance music. 

Sounding like something related at times to the loud and nasty music Skrillex, Major Lazer is far more textured and studied compared to to that producer's aggressive style and the dancehall fusion gives it a gonzo edge that works for the high-energy party music this is.

Major Lazer uses a lot of guest vocals to give the tracks some individuality and some are a little startling. He does the Jamaican dancehall/left-field dance thing best on banging tracks 'Jet, Blue, Jet' with Leftside+GTA+Razz & Biggy, 'Jah No Partial' with Flux Pavilion, 'Watch for This (Bumaye)' with Busy Signal+The Flexican+FS Green and the opener 'You're No Good' with Santigold+VYBZ Kartel+Danielle Haim+Yasmin where the Jamaican accent drives the proceedings. The track 'Jah No Partial' has a mean breakdown section that is very reminecient of Skrillex. Amber Kaufman of Dirty Projectors singing a quiet but excellent track called 'Get Free' is a definate standout. Timberlee and Peaches have a slightly nasty workout called 'Scare Me' which has a groove that is only slightly spoiled when Peaches starts her contribution with some purposefully dumb metaphors. On the topic of Peaches' lyrics, the line 'I can feel your Wiki leak' is actually just weird rather than sexual, it's a slight complaint to a fun track. Shaggy and Wynter Gordon do each side of relationship quiet well. Pop man Bruno Mars with help from Tyga and Mystic do a stupid and frothy track called 'Bubble Butt' that only missteps when Bruno gets a little too explicit. Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend does a ballad called 'Jessica' that didn't hit as well as it should but it lends to the variety. Overall the vocalists are a good mix and seem to bend themselves to the spirit of the extroverted music rather than divert from it. For any producer the art is to find a way to get the best from each artist inside the guise of his/her music and Major Lazer has carried that off well.

RATING : 4/5 STARS