KINGSTON, Jamaica — Heading into the new year, roots singer Clatta Bumboo was determined to make 2026 the most productive year since he began recording nine years ago.

The Rhode Island-based artiste starts his campaign with The Purge, a song scheduled for release on February 13. He co-produced it with American musician Jefferson A Ramos.

“We are planning on serving up more high-grade, roots-reggae music. Multiple singles are planned for the first half of the year with an album offering at the top of the third quarter. Certainly more live appearances and collaborations,” Clatta Bumboo told Observer Online.

The Purge is accompanied by Rapid Response, a dub version. During the 1970s, producers released vocal and dub editions of songs to appeal to mainstream fans and sound systems.

Raised on music from the 1970s, Clatta Bumboo saw the effectiveness of that strategy and decided to revisit it for his latest project.

“My observations of reggae history have certainly shaped how I create music as a modern roots-reggae artiste, and dubs, especially from the 1970s, are highly influential in my processes,” he said. “Dub versions are necessary to aid further development of the genre. The lyrical meaning may be diminished over time due to trends and shifts in societal norms but the music holds eternal.”

Clatta Bumboo is from Westmoreland which had a strong roots-reggae and Rastafarian vibe during the transformative 1970s. It is also the birthplace of firebrand singer-songwriter Peter Tosh and Ronnie Davis, a member of the roots trio, The Itals.

The proposed album will be Clatta Bumboo’s second. Make Way Rasta, his first, was released in 2023.

That came four years after Future Water, his first EP.

— Howard Campbell