Pressure Busspipe & Zion I Kings – All For A Time

“Pressure Busspipe & Zion I Kings”: That is far more than enough to get my attention and, if you have any sense, it’s the same case for you. All For A Time is a brand new project linking the two longtime favourites of ours, for the 900th time! I won’t go over too much, but in their catalogue together, Pressure & ZIK have given us two albums which we’ve rated at 5/5: Rebel With A Cause and The Sound, which we also named as 2014’s Album of The Year. Individually, they’re both also huge deals around here and I’ve been writing about them for… more than twenty years at this point.

Whatever they do is enough to get my attention; together, they’re potentially special. The new release actually lines up with the exact completion of Pressure’s 45th rotation of the sun (I could be wrong but I want to say that he’s actually done that before and, of course, you’ll recall just last year when Chronixx did the same thing with his most recent album, Exile) to add to the circumstances behind it.

All For A Time is basically an EP, a digital showcase. It features ten tracks, half of which are vocals, the other half (DELICIOUSLY) are dubs, so it lines up perfectly for the mini-review format that I’ve been doing lately (actually stopped writing another one to dig into this one). Apart from that… I mean… IT’S NEW PRESSURE BUSSPIPE MUSIC! LET’S GO!

All For A Time gets moving with the downright MAJESTIC praise JAH Is Worthy. On its surface, the song is almost ultra-straightforward in terms of both delivery and how it is written and it is transparent to an excellent degree. When you do dig a bit deeper, it does have a more complex element but we’ll deal with that in the second half when I tell you all about the wonderful dubs on this project. Next up is our title track. Let’s talk about this song for a minute. TEARS!

When they finished this one, I think it’s clear everyone involved were well aware what they had on their hands. All For A Time is SPECIAL! It is of a caliber that would see it rank amongst the absolute finest of the St. Thomas burner’s entire career and it is THE main attraction on the release named for it. It is absolutely STUNNING! From that syrupy sweet opening throughout the beautiful track as Pressure tells us all that nothing, including the roughest of times, is permanent. “Though it hard I nah sell out, Suffer so long and can’t wait to get the hell out, I smoke some marijuana and get mellow”.

Shine is the sole combination on All For A Time – featuring the well gifted Imeru Tafari (coincidentally, whose mother, Queen Ifrica, has a new album of her own called Breath Of Life, check the reveiw here) and it’s another one that excels via a powerful simplicity for the most part, although Imeru does turn up the fire just a bit later on for a riveting stretch which is not to be missed
“Binghi youth deh pon a mission, clinical wid precision. Your vision spiritual so you no need no permission”.

The old school rinsed Be Somebody has a riddim which SCREAMS that I know it from somewhere and maybe I do but getting to know this song has been damn delightful! There is an infectious… almost JAZZY/BLUESY quality to this song that isn’t entirely prevalent throughout but pops up during the chorus which absolutely CAUGHT me! The rest of the song is lovely also and I’ll tell you that Pressure has more than one (GOOD) album that Be Somebody would be in the conversation as being THE best song on.

Did you see what I just said about Be Somebody?? [If you didn’t it’s literally right there] The final vocal offering on the album All For A Time, Rasta Children is even better and CLEARLY so in my opinion. Ranking only second to the title track, the THICK Rasta Children, as you might expect, is a wonderful praising tune from Pressure and though you’ll find a number of such outstanding similar efforts within his impressive catalogue, even most of the best of them rarely reach such heights. Boom!

Let’s talk about those dubs for a second put a conclusion on this one and call it a day. I’ll bounce around a bit but let’s head straight to the head since I did allude to it previously.

JAH Is Worthy Dub SHINES even brighter, arguably, than the original version. If you’re unfamiliar at all with the work of the ZIK, the players of instruments include the typical esteemed cast (Tippy I, Jah David, Moon Bain, the late Andrew Stoch and the likes) (Stoch has been physically gone for nearly six years and we’re still celebrating his work. What a life that man led!) with a different name or two in the mix as well. This time around, Roberto Sanchez lends his monstrous talents to the project and, as is the norm, it is fantastic.

I’ve always said that I’m not the biggest Dubhead in the world but I’ve always appreciated the Dub work of the ZIK. JAH Is Worthy Dub has to be amongst some of their finest. Also, you really get a feel for just how complex and detailed this particular sound is here which is constantly one of the main points of interest for me on these type of releases.

Just as dense as ‘Rasta Children, Rasta Children Dub is another big winner here but in a different way than JAH Is Worthy Dub. Rasta Children Dub is a bit more on the spacious side and it is lovely. I could listen to this all day long.

Then there’s Shine Dub. This dub workout is all sorts of interesting and I was very curious as to how they would handle this one with two voices to attempt to mix into things. Shine Dub actually is more skeletal but the thing that sticks out here is… I don’t know if it’s a flute or what it is (probably is a flute and if it is it is attributed to Zoe Brown) but whatever it is, it lights this track up brilliantly. It makes Shine GLOW!

Lastly, the all-conquering All For A Time. makes way for All For A Time Dub which is nearly as enchanting (yes E N C H A N T I N G) as it vocal version. I won’t even begin to try to work my way through everything that is going on with this one but I will say that, beneath it all, SOMEWHERE in there is an oh so slight and but PERFECT guitar. It becomes much more pronounced later on but up until then (and including then) it hits all the right notes… or chords, or whatever you call those things on a guitar.