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First Watch: The Simpkin Project – Meditation

There are many reasons to be excited for 4/20, the counterculture “holiday” recognized internationally as a day to celebrate the consumption of cannabis, or as we refer to it in our household, the “High Holy Holiday.” Surely many Rootfire readers have plans locked down for this festive occasion, including multiple options for attending live music performances with their buds.

The VP Records imprint, Dub Rockers, gives reggae fans another thing to look forward to: the release of the digital compilation, High Society Reggae, a collection of ganja-themed modern reggae tunes sure to spark lighters and shatter foul moods around the world. Properly honoring a global tradition, Dub Rockers has cultivated an exquisite selection of artists hailing from a variety of countries, including Jamaica, Spain, Italy, England and the United States. The album features a diverse array of styles — a lickle roots, a lickle dub, a lickle dancehall — and a lot of nugs.

Today Rootfire premieres The Simpkin Project single, “Meditation,” an enchanting, aptly named track debuting as part of High Society Reggae. The song starts simply, with a beautiful guitar intro before the rest of the lush instrumentation kicks in. Soon, gentle, harmonized vocals laud the healing properties of escaping the cognitive and emotional daily grind via self-reflection.

In these days of strife, conflict and an increasingly disturbing lack of compassion in the Babylon rat race of society, this message resonates deeply:

So much running around
Keep my feet on the ground
Things get hard to maintain
With so much keeping me down
And I’m struggling on
Constantly on the run
But when my work is done
I long for meditation, my meditation, waiting for me

Try my best every day
With so much blocking my way
To keep myself on the path
So many things to obey
And when it’s hard to stay strong
So many steps I’ve gone
When I can’t carry on
I long for meditation

I feel so nice what a wonderful state of mind
I reach such heights as the vision inside me climbs
I feel so light see the world from a different side
I feel so right meditation I feel so fine

Deep within concentrate
Learn to appreciate
The states of mind that arise
In this contemplative state
Let the smoke fill the place
And the things you create
Coalesce inside my mind
Through meditation

The track winds down with almost two minutes of pacifying melody, infused with an ethereal guitar solo and soothing vocalizing, all of which nudge the listener toward a meditative state.

With masterpieces like this, it’s no wonder The Simpkin Project remain so well-regarded throughout the progressive roots scene.


High Society Reggae featuring The Simpkin Project’s track “Meditation” drops April 20 on Dub Rockers. Pre-order your copy today. 

 

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Ever since becoming deeply moved and then essentially obsessed with reggae music as a teenager, Dave has always strove to learn as much as possible about the history and culture of reggae music, Jamaica and Rastafari, the ideology and lifestyle intertwined with reggae. 

Over the years, he has interviewed many personalities throughout the reggae world including Ziggy Marley, Burning Spear, Lucky Dube, Bradley Nowell and many artists in the progressive roots scene.

Dave has also written and published a novel, “The Cosmic Burrito,” a tale of two friends who drive across the USA in search of the ultimate burrito. He plays ice hockey weekly for a recreational team he founded and manages, Team Rasta.

Reggae music has filled his life with a richness for which he will forever be grateful, and he gives thanks to musicians far and wide, past and present, whether they perform roots, dub, dancehall, skinhead, rocksteady or ska, whether their tools are analog or digital, as well as the producers, promoters, soundsystems, selectors and the reggae massive at large who comprise the international reggae community.

You can follow Dave on Instagram at @rootsdude and Twitter at @ElCosmicBurrito.

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