Machel, Kes, Bunji and Skinny Fabulous team up on Spirit of Carnival Project

Some of Carnival’s biggest hit makers have teamed up on a project called The Spirit of Carnival.

Machel Montano, Kes, Bunji Garlin and Skinny Fabulous are the contributors to the project. It was released on December 14.

The project features four songs: Umbrella by Bunji Garlin, Behavior Nothin’ by Skinny Fabulous, Mental Day by Kes and The Spirit by Montano.

The Spirit of Carnival was the brainchild of Skinny Fabulous, his music A&R Stephen “Int’l Stephen” Phillip Jr said. He has been his music A&R (artists and repertoire) for over five years.

Int’l Stephen said Skinny got the riddim sometime ago and was working on writing something for it.

Skinny Fabulous also heard Montano on the riddim and began working on something for them both. He began working on different ideas and also invited other writers to give concepts.

“I started to send the riddim out. Skinny started to send the riddim out to other writers as well,” Int’l Stephen said.

They received another demo originally written for Montano but the team felt that Kes the band would be able to execute the song well.

“One thing led to the next. He also sent the riddim to Bunji and it just kind of came together similar to how Famalay did for us, with the right pieces at the right time.”

In 2019, Montano, Skinny Fabulous and Bunji Garlin teamed up to produce the single, Famalay which won the Road March.

Int’l Stephen said the project aims to capture the sentiment of Carnival being missed over the two-year period. There was no Carnival because of the covid19 pandemic.

On YouTube, an 11-minute, eight-second video opens with Skinny Fabulous saying: “The Spirit of Carnival…is not something you can actually or literally describe in real words.

“The spirit is a vibe you have to experience, like if you in a soca fete and the rain start to fall.”

It then cuts away to Bunji Garlin’s track Umbrella.

The video shows Skinny Fabulous giving an explanation for each song.

He said the team received the demo for the Spirit of Carnival around August/September and quickly came together in a couple of months.

The riddim is 130 beats per minute (bpm) and will be considered a groovy track.

“However, the original producer is from the US Virgin Islands and their production and music is known to be very aggressive. This particular production carries that aggressive tone as well,” he said.

“People could break away to this like they would definitely do with a power track but it is definitely in the groovy bpm.”

He said it was good to see how receptive people are to this kind of work and the team put a lot of effort and thought into it.