Renegades Steel Orchestra – A Panorama Saga II

Review

In technical terms it has proved notoriously difficult to produce viable recordings of steel pan, one of Trinidad’s many unique musical offerings to the wider world. Just to capture the timbre of a few pans has defeated many an engineer, but faced with faithfully reproducing the incredible intensity of a 120-strong steelband playing tenor, cello, guitar and bass pans, along with the assorted instruments of the rhythm section, is a daunting task. Where many have failed, Sanch Electronix have produced a masterful coup in this recording of one of Trinidad’s most long-lived, well loved, famed and formerly infamous steelbands, the BP Renegades, nine-time winners of the national Panorama competition. These seven tracks allow all those who have never experienced the visceral thrill of a Panorama night under the stars at The Big Yard on the Queen’s Park Savannah in Port of Spain, to be there, if only vicariously. [SL/Caribbean Beat]