New projects from Diamond Cut

At a time when home grown talent here has struggled to make it mainstream, and studios and promoters have pretty much shied away from shelling out the requisite 'bucks' or any sustained effort, Diamond Cut is attempting to move away from that mold.

Having hit the scene big locally a few years ago, with a modern studio located at a private property beneath Sinclair's Bargain Centre on Manchester Road, the two-man executive team of Lambert 'Burt' Pitter and Tony Sinclair is attempting to go all-out to find their niche in the music market. Party Mix is their latest and certainly most sophisticated towards that objective.

Work was completed on this project from early this year but the bulk of the promotion was launched in the summer both here and abroad. It has got especially good reviews abroad with Deon Matthis, former local disc jockey at Irie FM, now London-based with her drive time show at vibesfm.net, labelling it "fresh and an excellent."

Several of the tracks have now been included in the locally produced film by Press Play Productions, Deadliest Sins, which will be promoted later this year at Sundance as well as the Inside Out Toronto Film Festival.

Foreign flavour

There are 14 tracks on the two-disc compilation featuring artistes local and with a foreign flavour. All however, seem apt in the singer/DJ style. 'Party Riddim' is all their own creation and the selection of artistes for the various tracks was deliberate as it was strategic.

"We wanted seasoned campaigners but we also wanted people who could appreciate our level of progress, grow with us, as well as use the opportunity to make a name for themselves," Sinclair said in a recent interview.

Two of the local artistes featured with individual tracks bear out Sinclair's pitch.

Stikki, christened Brian Williams, did Fe Di Summer, and at age 32 is Mandeville based, having hailed from Spur Tree in Manchester. He has had two name changes throughout his career, once going as 'Willi' and then 'Tantofari'. He has good vocal quality and can be deft at both the hard core style and the savvy.

The fact that the album has been promoted in Britain where Pitter is mainly based, and wider Europe belt provides unprecedented exposure for him but he has also been gratified by the experience to work with 'Party Riddim'.

"It was a very good experience," he told THE WEEKEND STAR.

"Impressed with the studio facilities and the producers were good to work with ... I wish I had people around me like that in the early days."

Like Stikki, Torch, whose real name is Kevin Richardo Campbell, is 32. He did Gyal Dem Summer. He hails from Trench Town, and was once known as 'Honey Cone' before making a change as it clashed with 'Honey Comb', brother of famed Jamaican artiste, Tony Rebel. Party Riddim has created somewhat of a rebirth for him and he featured heavily in the local promotion getting a lot of raves from his work on gigs at Havana Pool Party, Penpal Friday at Allman Town and Bull Bucks, Top Jungle. But for him, coming to cool and easy paced Mandeville to record away from the hustle and bustle of Kingston, was a new experience.

"Just coming to Mandeville was different, away from the cut and thrust of Kingston, where you can meditate and do a good production," he says.

(from Jamaica Star)