Bunji Garlin, the "Viking of Soca", sounds as confident as ever on his latest single, Exodus. It shares it's bold tone with 2012's massive hit "Differentology", but while the earlier hit was slower than traditional soca, with more minimal instrumentation, Exodus was produced by Trinidadian/U.K. team Jus Now, and incorporates harder, darker U.K. club sensibilities. Garlin's incorporation of sounds from other genres might seem like an attempt to cross-over, but he rejects that explanation. He is not interested in crossing over, away from soca, but in reinvigorating the genre with new influences, while at the same time bringing soca to the world.
Like many very local music forms, soca has struggled to find an international audience, largely because it's so tied to Carnival.
Sam Chadburn of Jus Now aptly described this as both a blessing and a curse -the high energy, festival atmosphere and rich traditions of Carnival are what made soca into such excellent dance music, but the annual production cycle built around Carnival can be restrictive. Soca musicians push hard in the months leading up to Carnival to put out new tracks and get attention, and to compete in Soca Monarch competitions, then spend the rest of the year touring with that material before the cycle starts again. It means a short life span for songs - no matter how good, they'll be forgotten next season - and it also makes it difficult for soca artists to put out full albums. Plus, packing all the new soca releases into 4 months makes it harder for individual artists to stand out and attract attention outside of Trinidad.
While Exodus makes mention of the Carnival stage, and is timed to get serious play this festival season, it's clearly a track aimed for all kinds of stages, all over the world. Garlin, a four time winner of the Soca Monarch competition, stopped competing last year to focus on his album and outside projects. This year, it was announced that
reigning monarchs will no longer be required to defend their titles, freeing up other successful soca artists to follow Garlin's path and develop their careers outside of the Carnival cycle, as well as potentially opening up the contest for new talent. So maybe in 2015, we'll get to keep partying to Soca past Carnival and all through the year.
