ST LUCIA-BORN DJ Barrie Hype brought a sense of newness to weekly party series Bacchanal Fridays, held at Mas Camp in St Andrew, on Friday night. The guest DJ used his set to spin the latest soca hits in order to familiarise the local crowd with what to expect for the rest of the carnival season.

“It was obvious in my eyes that a lot of the crowd does know the 2016 music,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

His observation was simply part of a trend that Barrie Hype has noticed since coming to carnival in Jamaica for the past five years. According to him, there seems to be an increase in the crowd’s knowledge, a higher level of participation, and the addition of Jamaica’s own vibe to the experience. He acknowledges that 2015 would be a hard year to top in the genre.

“Last year was the best year ever in the opinion of many of us in the industry,” he said.

In 2015, many of the standout soca songs found themselves infused with the worldwide Electronic Dance Music trend, gaining them crossover success.

“The soca/EDM trend is still carrying over, but not as many as last year,” he explained.

With that said, Hype’s rotation contained a long list of instantly recognised carnival season chart-toppers such as Allez, All Ah We, Go Hard, and Waiting On The Stage from Machel Montano, which makes Hype’s own personal playlist. An increasing sub-genre is the dancehall remix, where soca stars engage Jamaican dancehall artistes on their tracks and vice versa. One such tune was the well-received Bicycle Ride, featuring Bunji Garlin and Vybz Kartel.

Barrie Hype, who was amply backed up by local soca spinner DJ Lantern, will return during carnival week at a yet to be announced date. DJ Sanjay also joined in as hype man during Barrie Hype’s extended set.

— Rory Daley