CONCEPTS OF THE MAS ASSASSIN: Concept section for Symphony of life.

ince starting Massassination I have never, as far as I can remember done a mas remix or a mas concept for you to see, like I did on Island mix, but today that is going to change.

Symphony of life, the 2008 presentation by Burrokeets for Notting Hill Carnival, was a theme that fascinated me. However I found that their execution of the mas lacked originality, imagination, and creative depth. Their Symphony was a standard concept of steel pans, guitars, piano’s, and the chutney influences.

Now there is no expense to use a little imagination in the development of a concept. When critiquing Burrokeets, I stated that their design team needed to look outside of their little minds sometimes, for while they reside in the U.K, their mental seems to be stuck in early nineties Trinidad. And the proof can be seen in the dated lazy designs they have put out.

To show how easy it is to add a little depth to a mas, its meaning and design, I decided to put my own pens to paper and put down a little rough sketch for you.

So here is a little Massassination Mas Concept that I put together using the theme Symphony of life.

This concept section is called ‘Beat of the Street’.

Beat of the Street, is just that, in this symphony of life the streets ruminate with beats of urban culture, and music, be it raga, hip-hop, bangra, pop, or an amalgam of them all, but for youth across the global village that the Earth is today, the beat of the street is also the beat of death.

The costume is a 21^st Century, version of the notorious Midnight Robber Mas.

This character is a direct descendant of the Midnight Robber, a great, great, grandson or granddaughter of the ‘Agent of Death’.

Adorned not with the sombrero of his ancestors, this young ‘Death Dealer’ is hooded, or wears a cap.

But their trappings are familiar.

Their skulls are diamond or diamante encrusted, for they are driven by the bling, they still wear black, the colour most feared by all men and thought to be the colour of death.

They rock gold, and diamonds, the metals and minerals of cash, conflict, and genocide. From the villages of Africa, to the cities of London, New York and Port of Spain, men, women and children have died, Mothers and Fathers have cried, promise of tomorrow smothered by a red tide, on the streets of this robbers beat.

You might find it all gloom and doom, but mas is a reflection of life and life is not all fun and fantasy, and a symphony is not always sweet.

There you go, hope you understood it, I hope you liked it, and if not, that’s life.

Later.