US$17.00 plus S&H

1. De Parang Now Start
2. Eat Something
3. Homemade Wine
4. Backyard Jam
5. Madame Jeffrey
6. Leroy
7. Drinking Anything
8. Chutkaipan
9. Anita
10. Nikita
11. Merry Christmas
12. Piece Ah Pork
13. That Eh Working Here Tonight (Cocotte)

PARANG, a music featuring songs rendered in broken Spanish and set to lively rhythms, was originally created to tell the story of Christmas from a religious perspective.

In the mid-1970’s it was fused with soca, a bubbly derivative of traditional calypso, introducing English lyrics that shifted the focus to ground level, describing how Caribbean people celebrate the season.

Of the stars who emerged in this revolutionary new genre, Scrunter is widely acknowledged as the cutting-edge composer/singer, delivering a new musical folk-tale annually, in which he captures the spirit of the Caribbean people with singular accuracy.

His experience with traditional calypso afforded him the facility of infusing humor into already provocative verses (and sing-along choruses), producing highly infectious and easily danceable songs at every sequence. Every song that appears on this album comes with the integrity of having been a hit in its year of release.

To have them all available now in a single issue, puts the icing on a Christmas cake that combines individual flavors to produce an exciting blend of seasonal spices.

In addition, the twist of an enhanced latin touch keeps the work in step with its origins, while embracing the contemporary dance music craze, without sacrifice of its original soul.

The rustic charms of Backyard Jam or Madame Jeffrey, now with a rambling piano or the added touch of a fiddler, conscripts the catchy and popular idiom, while retaining a firm grip on the fundamentals of traditional soca-parang music.

A Decade of Scrunter – De Parang Now Start therefore presents the listener with a synergy of style that leap with extraordinary ease from the historical reference of today’s requirement for exciting and primal music.

In Chutkaipan, another dimension is added, embracing an even larger number of musical influences and presenting a fresh dynamic to the form that hitherto limited itself to the agreed influences of historical style.

In the sum, the album is a swashbuckling adventure in music that leaves the listener refreshed instead of breathless.

De Parang Now Start produces what it promises to lovers of parang, soca, latin and folk music in a bundle that unravels to deliver a sparkling mix of tradition, state-of-the-art and futuristic musical initiatives; with an honesty and soul that adds value to the original versions.

If you knew Scrunter before, this is your chance to experience ten years of his work at a single sitting. And if you are only just coming to reality, then sit back, listen, or get up and dance to A Decade of Scrunter.

Terry Joseph
Entertainment Specialist
The Trinidad Express