Pan-American dance diplomats
Diplo and
Switch moved from Brazilian baile funk and Baltimore club music to Jamaican dancehall for
Guns Don't Kill People... Lazers Do, the debut album for their
Major Lazer project. (There was also a one-off Top Ten hit and Grammy-nominated Record of the Year in there too, for
M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes.") The results are excellent standard-bearers for dancehall, displaying the duo's ample facility for floating the type of productions that have made dancehall the most experimental and extreme type of commercial dance music since it dawned in the mid-'80s. Inveterate DJs and music fans, both
Diplo and
Switch are well versed in the style, and they apparently had no difficulty recruiting dancehall's best and brightest for features, including vocalists Mr. Lex,
Ms. Thing, and
Mr. Vegas as well as production powerhouse
Vybz Kartel (they also lured in a pair of non-dancehall types,
Santigold and
Amanda Blank). As other producers have known, including
the Bug and
DJ /rupture, dancehall music is perfect for experimentalist dance producers. It's a careening and unpredictable style, where hooks can be fashioned from any noises: sirens, horns, vocal tags, horses neighing, cellphones buzzing, babies crying, and of course, lasers. The beats are pummeling, equally reliant on digital pulses and martial snares, but they drop out often (the better to lay down some more offbeat effects). The productions here conform to dancehall more than they play against type, even spreading to the affectionately silly weed anthem "Mary Jane" and a pair of slack (aka sex-heavy) tracks, "Bruk Out" and "What U Like." (Unfortunately, on the latter, an epic battle of the sexes between
Einstein and indie rap sensation
Amanda Blank never materializes.) The highlights come early on, when
Santigold and Mr. Lex combine fiercely on the opening "I'll Make Ya" (aka "Hold the Line"), and also on "Anything Goes," where
Turbulence earns his sobriquet with a screaming extroverted performance over
Major Lazer's hailstorm of beats and sweeping strings. Side two encompasses everything from Auto-Tuned dance-pop to a production tour de force on "Pon de Floor," with
Major Lazer joined by
Vybz Kartel. It's as much as could be expected from the high expectations brought by all the participants, and considering the rumors of more productions and guests that didn't see the light, it's likely there'll be more to come.