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Soca Superstar Kes Breaks Down Five Favorite Tracks From First Album in 10 Years: ‘It’s Time to Position Ourselves in a Global Way’
'Man With No Door' marks the award-winning soca band's first studio LP in a decade. Here are the stories behind frontman Kes' five favorite tracks.
Soca – which Road March-winning Kes frontman Kees Dieffenthaller describes as “happy music, a young version of calypso… a mixture of Afro, Indian and ‘world’ beats in one place” — also celebrated its half-century milestone. The new LP recruits a flashy list of guest stars to execute Kes’ “application” of soca across different styles and sonic traditions, including Shaggy, Queen Omega, Busy Signal, Dwala, Tano, J Perry and Michaël Brun. While Kes is most excited about “Rise Up,” a collaboration with fellow Trinbagonian Queen Omega, whose music he calls “powerful,” he also highlights his work with J. Perry and Michael Brun, noting, “We experienced freedom because of [Haiti].
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