Taxi 109 channels British roots-reggae lineage on new Italian single

Taxi 109 has pushed its new single into reggae’s British roots line without sanding off its Italian identity. Orange Sushi Market was recorded in English, built around a classic roots-reggae arrangement, and shaped to evoke the sound of Jamaican reggae bands transplanted into Great Britain. The release also arrived with a dub version, a detail that gives the track extra weight for listeners who still follow the deeper mix culture of roots music.

The rollout began across social media on May 15, with a video version set to follow. That kind of independent launch fits the record’s feel: direct, scene-driven and aimed at listeners who care as much about arrangement and dub space as they do about a clean vocal cut. Taxi 109 kept the focus on the song itself, but the promise of an alternate dub immediately widened the release beyond a standard single drop.

A lot of that character came through Gaudi, who mixed the track and also co-produced it. Orange Sushi Market was recorded at his Metatron Studio in London, where the dub version was also made. Gaudi’s own profile in the dub and electronica world adds another layer to the record’s international reach, and his credits include a recent Grammy nomination for his production work on Steel Pulse’s Mass Manipulation. His London base links the single to a long line of Jamaican-influenced music made far from Jamaica, but still inside the genre’s core language.

Taxi 109 is not arriving from nowhere, either. An Italian biography places the group’s beginnings in 2000, as an evolution of a crew first founded in 1992, and describes its repertoire as mostly original material rooted in reggae, rocksteady and ragga. Discogs traces Taxi 109 releases back to a 2004 demo and a 2005 promo single, which underlines that this is an established act working from an existing catalogue, not a novelty project chasing a passing trend.

That history matters because Orange Sushi Market does not treat British reggae lineage like a costume. The song sounds like a band that understands where roots music traveled after Jamaica, and why that route still counts. With the original cut and the dub version both in play, Taxi 109 has put out a release that connects Italy, London, Great Britain and Jamaica in one compact, very deliberate roots statement.