unji Garlin (Ian A. Alvarez), has been releasing hit after hit since the start of his soca career in 1999 Carnival Season with the ever-infectious Ragga Soca tune ‘Send Dem Riddim Crazy’- which also gave him the 3rd place running in the first ever ‘Ragga Soca Competition’. With his unique ability to spit lyrics extemporaneously on any given subject, as well as chant at an almost non-human speed, he just kept rising, learning to fuse different cultures together in his styles as well as experiment with various genres. From Chutney to Hip Hop to Parang and Conscious- he has done it all.
Bunji Garlin has also introduced us to the Godfatherz Asylum (55 strong) to which many of the Ragga Soca artistes belonged. 3 Suns, Benjai, Gail Ann, Scarface, Ninjitsu and many others. Now the Asylum Band- a fusion of some of these artistes and a team of young, talented musicians and producers (formerly Censation)- we have felt the connection on and off the stage. Fueling the powerhouse and pumping the soca rhythms through our veins these young people have taken us up in the infectious melodies and carried us away chord by chord as we gyrate, jump, wave, scream, shout, laugh and belt out all our favourite Bunji/ Fayann/ Scarface tunes.
Although many of the faces in Asylum have changed over the years, their family-like relationship is always visible.
Asylum can lay claim to having many mighty forces in the Local Music Industry as being former members of the family- Shawn ‘Da Mastamind’ Noel, Richard Trumpet, Benjai, Gailann, Shammi just to name a few.
With 10 years in the Soca Industry, Bunji Garlin has released 8 albums
(Chronicles, Revelation, The Black Spaniard, Graceful Vengeance, Flamestorm, The Next Direction, Global, Fiery)
and has attained 7 crowns
(2 Ragga Soca Titles- 2000, 2001; Young King Title- 2000; 4 Soca Monarch Titles- 2002, 2004, 2005, 2008)
