THE PROCESS® have been together, kicking out them high octane reggae/punk jams, for many a moon....'bout ten years or so. Can't imagine Michigan's music scene without 'em.

First heard about THE PROCESS® from Lukas, my son's best buddy. Seems that his cousin Arek was a member a few years back. Lukas would come back from rehearsals or a show and tell me all about this 'WEIRD' band. I didn't quite know what to make of this metallic rock outfit that wore WIGS and bastardized reggae music....it sounded W-A-Y over the top to me.

'Cos I LOVED reggae, especially Bob Marley (though my knowledge and understanding of Marley and reggae was limited). I saw Marley in the mid-seventies. And that man was surely righteous. His music wondrous and authentic. How dare THE PROCESS® corrupt this precious music... music so real, so important that it became Jamaica's clarion call for revolt - to STAND UP for cultural freedom and social justice. The power of the music transcends time, place, and person.

It was from that limited perspective that I first saw THE PROCESS® in concert two years ago
The show began dramatically with repetitive and EXPLOSIVE riffing with a fog machine kickin' it out, setting the stage for vocalist David Asher's entrance. MY GOD!!! I've never witnessed a better or more dramatic opening.
VERY COOL
And I hadn't heard music so good, yet so ear-shattering since I attended a Johnny Winter "sonic-blast" back in '72.
And it only got better...
I can't remember the song list (though "Jah Made the Herb" was a worthy and provocative tune), but let me tell you... this band is INTENSE. Asher is one of the most dynamic front men around. He's a great singer... a natural contralto with a voice that RESONATES - he MEANS what he sings.
Believe it.
THE PROCESS® made a believer out of me. They took an idiom - a form of music - and made it their own. Like Stevie Ray Vaughn with the blues, THE PROCESS® pays homage to reggae by staying true to the cultural/political current of the music while personalizing the message - in the best and purist way...honest emotions and thoughtful lyrics.

Blood & Bones was released around August of 2002...a few months later I had the good fortune and pleasure of meeting up with lead singer David Asher at White's Bar. We talked about music in general and Bob Marley in particular. Asher KNOWS. Anyway, he palmed me a copy of Blood & Bones.

And it was in this manner that I discovered this sonic wonder, this masterwork by THE PROCESS®....

Blood & Bones

The first track "Rising Up" opens with a brief syncopated beat with guitar/percussive noodlings that explodes in a funky bass and synthesizer attack that segues to Asher's foreboding couplet..." I'm rising out of the darkness again - like a flame to the wind"
"I'm rising up like a fire...like a flame to the wind"
The refrain threatens that "Bars cannot hold me, just can't control me"
"Spirit rise again".
The "hook" is Asher's compelling chorus... "This train's bound for glory, and it's riding through the night". Great track.

"Mist of Time" is a powerful rap about things that REALLY matter. Asher sings about seven seals, revelations, and the prophets of old - that freedom and peace are calling from across the sands of times. The WORD of love is spread by desert winds while Asher and THE PROCESS® warn that the by-products of war are bio-tech death and a blackened earth. Listen to the word!

"Run Them Down" is a warning to the warriors of Babylon. Jah's on the rise again...he's on the move and he's gonna take an accounting - "the valley of decision" for those whose "evil" is reflected by the wicked things they do to others...they way they "run them down". Great muscular guitar and drum riff with traditional reggae beat.

The title track "Blood & Bones" is a serious masterpiece. Dynamic, powerful. Asher's lyric universalizes the human experience - our struggle - and acknowledges Africa as the mother of all nations - that our spiritual origins and journeys are rooted "deeper than flesh, deep within your heart, deep like blood and bones". Amen.

"Spread The Money" is a "dance" song...but Asher still puts his message across
" "You were once a man, twice a child",
"it's a crime, the way you keep that money for yourself".
"GIVE IT UP RICH MAN"
- "You can't take it with you when you go"!!!"
Asher's great utopian vision.
If only....

"Rapdown" is another dance/reggae groove that mixes rap with more traditional singing. Asher warns that evildoers and devil governments are comin'..
"over the hills, across the seas"...
here they come say "Jah is dead"
( but don't believe it)
"Jah hold them in a big rain cloud,
Jah hold them in a lightning bolt
Jah hold them in the east
Rasta catch them in the west
fire burn them in the North and South".
Asher and THE PROCESS® bring it all home in celebration - "woogie, zoogie, zoogie, zoo....scooter - cool breeze"

The Bob Marley anthem, "Get Up, Stand Up" is given the "Process treatment". It's a faithful rendition, that does not lose any of Marley's original rage and fire. "You can't fool all the people all the time - DON'T GIVE UP THE FIGHT". Great guitar by Bill Heffelfinger. A perfect cover for THE PROCESS®.

"Rasta Calling" is an uptempo heavy rocker, with a cool circular riff and some great metal guitar from Garrick Owen that accentuates Asher's spiritual message. He tags historical references to King Solomon, the Queen of Sheba, Ethiopia, 3000 year empires, monasteries and temples - and the untold stories of the ages.

A club mix of "Rising Up" serves as the coda...the dance groove softens the intensity of the message as if Asher is now standing back from the music in a seeming paradox - a sense of weariness and rejuvenation. He bared his soul in a heavy truthful catharsis. He's now on the outside of the song, his heart dancing to the beat...free

Bo White
2/2/03