After creating a splash and a name for themselves last year, VI Band is hoping to keep their fans happy with the release of a new single titled ‘Beat Drop’, which incorporates Jougo, vocalist with five-time road march champion, Showtime Band, BVI Platinum News reports.
Lead singer for VI Band, Nigel Williams said the idea behind the new release was to produce a collaboration with a local band and thanked Jougo for his cooperation.
“We wanted to show the fans out there that VI Band is still around and we are coming bigger and better this year. The idea for this song was to get collaboration for VI Band and also pleasing the fans for both VI Band and also Showtime Band with the featuring of Jougo,” Williams stated.
He said that the release of the single is a stepping stone for the band as they seek to solidify themselves on the local scene with the release of an album sometime this year, which they hope will also gain international recognition.
Currently, the band is working on three other songs including a party mix.
“We will be producing an album this year with features and maybe a different type of genre in music, like R&B. We’re not just trying to target the Virgin Islands, but more international music. We are hoping to push this new song on many different medias out there; radio, internet and CDs.
VI Band has been together for some three years now and during an interview with BVI Platinum News last year, Williams pointed out that the reason for forming the band was the love of the Virgin Islands style of calypso and also wanting to put band members’ talents to good use in positive ways.
Last year, the band released a CD that received airplay during the August festival celebration. However, Williams had pointed out that the promotion of local bands and music is dying mainly because bands look forward to a lot of events such as the rise and shine tramp that has been reduced in a lot of ways and means.
He added that the entertainment in the Festival Village is now more international than local, but the parade is the “savior of it all”, since the community comes out to display mass colors while having fun on that day with mostly local bands.
This year for festival, Williams said the band will advocate for a few nights in the village where the local bands can perform all night.
“Our plan for this year’s festival is to bring good clean music to not just target the young, but also the older folks. We’re looking forward to entertain at our festival villages, parade, jams and jouvert. Of course we are hoping that our music for this year will be taking over the air ways because we are also looking for that road march title. Right now our fans can check out our YouTube link with this new song and look out for bigger things with this song to come for this year, because I know the fans love it and we will be pushing hard,” Williams stated.
The new song can be found on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJfVJM5rAXE

For the original report go to http://www.bviplatinum.com/news.php?page=Article&articleID=1337272364

Jougo Kokuto Shochu

Another good shochu to start with for shochu novices is a kokuto shochu which is made from sugar cane. It’s inherent sweetness is soft on the palate. This is from Amami Oshima south of Kagoshima.

Koji: shiro (white) koji – making it a light, delicate shochu

alcohol: 25%

suggested drinking method: on the rocks

distillation: otsurui (single distillation) honkaku shochu

distillery: Amami Oshima Shuzo