Cedric Myton Returns With Five-Track Roots EP Life Stone

The falsetto that threaded through The Congos' landmark 1977 Lee "Scratch" Perry productions at the Black Ark is still very much active. Cedric Myton, born in 1947 in Old Harbour, Jamaica, released the Life Stone EP on March 27 via Freedom Sounds, pairing his still-distinctive vocal with contemporary roots production from Ari Riddim Maker.

The five-track set spans "Bringstone," "Who Cool Be," "Music Back To Life," "Walking Tru The Time Zone," and "Love Friend Of Mine." Production across the EP leans warm and deliberately unhurried, built to foreground the phrasing and timbre Myton has cultivated across more than five decades, from early work with The Bell Stars and The Tartans in the late 1960s through The Congos' Black Ark recordings featuring Boris Gardiner on bass and Ernest Ranglin on guitar.

Heart of the Congos, the 1977 album widely regarded as one of Perry's masterpiece Black Ark productions, remains a cornerstone of roots reggae harmony and a first-crate pull for selectors running serious roots nights. That lineage is exactly what makes new Myton material an event rather than a routine drop; artists of his generation release infrequently enough that each project carries collector and archival weight the moment it lands.

Life Stone arrived digitally on March 27 across streaming platforms and specialist reggae outlets, with Reggaeville listing it in its same-day releases roundup. The EP is built for the kind of communal listening where Myton's catalog already commands deep familiarity: sound system sessions, vinyl nights at roots-focused record shops, and nyabinghi circles where the reverential, meditative register of tracks like "Walking Tru The Time Zone" lands exactly as intended. Roots radio programmers and selectors building sets around classic-era harmony singing have five new tracks ready to slot in alongside the back catalog.

Festival bookers and heritage lineup programmers will find the EP's release a pointed signal that Myton is actively recording in 2026, not simply running legacy touring cycles. Life Stone closes on "Love Friend Of Mine," a title that reads almost as a mission statement from a vocalist still articulating the spiritual core that made The Congos indispensable nearly five decades ago.