Troots n Ice to launch album

Soca duo “Troots ‘n Ice”, a group known for their dulcet tones and catchy beats, are said to have their fans in eager anticipation of the imminent release of their self-titled album ‘Troots n Ice’.{{more}}

The album, produced by Mark Cyrus, will be released at HOT 97 FM show ‘Shipwreck’ on June 26th, and will be the band’s first album with the full line-up. “We’ve been on other compilation albums before,” Levar ‘Ice’ Fraser pointed out. Fraser also announced that besides being available locally in music stores, the album will be available for download from major music sites such as iTunes, Rap City and Napster.

Troots ‘n Ice are confident that music lovers will by no means be disappointed with the album, which will see a few of their older tracks such as ‘Senorita’ and ‘Mi Amor’ mingled with new ones. In total, there are 16 tantalizing tracks with guest artistes such as Dani-O and Full Clip.

Repeating a usual appeal of artistes worldwide, Troots n Ice are beseeching Vincentians not to buy pirated copies of local music. Gary ‘Troots’ Young insisted: “If you’re a true lover of Vincy music you wouldn’t buy a pirated CD!” In support of his fellow artistes, Young believes that 2009 is seeing a better quality of music being produced. “They’re taking the time to polish it up… the entire region is watching us right now.”

Moreover, Troots n Ice will be entering the Ragga Soca competition for the first time, with a track titled ‘Captivate’. They believe that they stand a fighting chance of scooping the top spot. “Everyone has been telling us to go for it. So, we’re going to try to captivate the crowd!” Young chuckled.

He also related that they had never entered before because competition rules previously forbade the entry of acts with more than one person. “They kept us out of the first year because they weren’t accepting duos…” Last year, however, Young and Fraser noticed that duos had been allowed to enter, but they had never been alerted to the change in rules. So this year, Troots ‘n Ice are getting ready to blow the competition out of the water.

Whilst acknowledging the complaint that soca music is only released for Carnival, Young and Fraser explained that it is financially difficult for soca artistes to release music all year round without the backing of an established record company. Additionally, they pointed out that soca music mostly gets airplay on radio stations at carnival time, so it’s hard to market their music outside of that time. “We’ve conditioned ourselves to just expect music (soca) at Carnival,” Young dismayed.

However, he believes that thatcan be overcome with more backing from the Ministries of Culture and Tourism, as well as the private sector. Young believes that music is a form of promoting St. Vincent and the Grenadines and has the potential to reach further than advertising only.

Young further noted that it would benefit local artistes immensely if equal emphasis and financial backing were placed on the local music industry as it is with shows such as Miss SVG. He is of the opinion that our musicians need a lot more assistance if our music is to ever reach an international platform. “We have a signature sound coming out of St. Vincent!”

Once the Carnival season has passed, Troots ‘n Ice plan to take ‘Captivate’ to a wider audience – intending to release dance and reggae versions of the track. “We do music not only for Carnival, but also on a world wide field,” declared Fraser.

They also expressed deep gratitude to Mark Cyrus, Island Koncepts, Champion Styles Boutique and Sensations for all the support and contributions that they have been afforded thus far. (JSV)