Release Radar: Rocksteady.dub (FKA Steadyrock!) is back with a brand new single ‘L.F.I.T.S (Love Floating In The Sky)
A fresh, infectious love song marks the return of one of Africa’s most eloquent, versatile and beloved artists. Titled "L.F.I.T.S (Love Floating in The Sky)", and releasing on Friday 19 August, the single from Rocksteady.dub (FKA Steadyrock!) is the first single off his next album Freedom Radio, due out later this year.
Over a 15 year career Durrell “Rocksteady.dub” Jacinto has - in various guises - recorded several albums, singles and mixtapes, performed solo, lead bands, worked as an engineer and producer (for Warner Music among many others) and run a music venue and vinyl shop in Soweto’s famous Vilakazi Street. He is one half of the producer team known as Best Buddies (also releasing this year on Present/TGTC) whose collaborative work “explores the intersections between life and sound". In 2021 Rocksteady.dub collaborated with UK legend General Levy, producing and co-writing two songs ('Locations' and 'Gal U2 Rude’) both of which were massively streamed. Rocksteady.dub has the widest array of creative talents and his music roams freely from sweet and tender love songs to reflexive and poetic acoustic pieces to defiant reggae and rock anthems of protest. All stitched together by the soulful effortless beauty of his voice.
The effects of the harsh conditions from the era of lockdown to the present global uncertainty are felt in his fresh but forceful new album which taps into everything from Afro contemporary, post-pop/rock, ragga, reggae and straight to House, hip hop and the tropical dub music. Rocksteady.dub's return to his solo work starts with L.F.I.T.S (Love Floating in The Sky) - a combination of traditional but adaptable urban sonic rhythms over joyful, defiant, easy-swinging guitar and bass. The evolution of the track is, in many ways, a mirror of the rollercoaster ride that all artists have been on over the past few years. “I had recorded the song while working on the new album,” says Rocksteady.dub. “I knew the drums had to create something that rolls along on the song’s fat, bubbling bass lines and metallically chiming traditional riffs. But when I sent the track for mixing, the engineer said that I needed to re-record the bassline which became problematic for me and I ended up tossing away the track for more than a year.
“But when the project was done, I felt strongly that it needed a track that was international but with a distinctly African feel. When I stopped working on the track, I had thought that I would work on it again on another project but something made me revisit it. I subtracted a lot of stuff to make it simpler than before and, during a back and forth process, the song convinced me of the importance of space in it. It’s a hippy love song for my wife, for my one love and I hope it finds a home in the hearts of listeners around the world.” Listen here.
