NOTHING CAN STOP US – SOOTHSAYERS MEETS CORNELL CAMPBELL

A superb sound clash featuring sweet-voiced Jamaican legend Cornell Campbell and the excellent London-based reggae and Afro-dub collective, Soothsayers, led by Robin Hopcraft and Idris Rahman.

The pairing first took shape through a chance meeting between Cornell Campbell and Hopcraft in Kingston, Jamaica early in 2011. A session was arranged at Bunny Lee’s recording studio in West Kingston and, within days, the collaboration produced the sweet ‘I’ll Never Leave’, a homage to Cornell’s island home country in Parish of St Elizabeth. The dub version of the track was released alongside Soothsayers’ ‘We’re Not Leaving’ in August 2011 and the Cornell Campbell version followed on a 45 on Soothsayers’ own Red Earth label a month later.

Within the tracklist, the collective revisits Cornel’s poignant 1970s sufferer’s classic ‘Jah Jah Me No Born Yah’ augmented by the addition of horns and Hammond organ bringing out the Moorish melodies of the original. Soothsayers also bring their trademark fusion of influences to the table and move Cornell’s sound into bold new directions, rocking on a rolling Afro groove for the hard-hitting ‘Nothing Can Stop Us’ and simmering on the downtempo reggae soul gem, ‘There’s A Fire’.