Modern Revolution

The brother duo Delus & Konshens are off to a promising start with this winning collection of modern roots and low-key dancehall compositions. The album was sidetracked for a few months when the group ran into trademark problems with an earlier moniker (SOJAH), but it turns out to have been worth the wait. What distinguishes this duo from many of its peers is the stylistic maturity both brothers demonstrate: while there are lots of neo-traditional roots-and-culture acts out there, and an even greater number of chest-beating self-styled dancehall dons, Delus & Konshens achieve a mature balance between the two extremes with Modern Revolution — which would have been an impressive feat by their third or fourth album, but is fairly astonishing on their debut. On "War" they demonstrate that a one-drop beat doesn't have to be soporific and dreamy (especially when it's goosed by a great horn chart); "U R the Wife" is a sweetly loving and vigorously galloping ska number; perhaps most impressive of all is the fact that the acoustic version of the duo's international hit "Pon the Corner" is surprisingly compelling, and actually finds them both in excellent voice — perhaps the best vocal performance of the album (in several other places their pitch is just flat enough to be a little bit annoying). "Hands Across the World" is a soul-pop workout that doesn't quite work out, but for the most part this is an extremely promising debut.