Browne and the group left the island Thursday for New York to kick-off the promotional campaign for the album titled My Crew, My Dogs, which has a planned release of date of October 23 from VP Records in New York.

He says that the disc will include tracks like Chi Chi Man, Keep It Blazing, Man A Bad Man and Shake Your Bam Bam as well as a brand new combination with Sashi star Shabba Ranks, titled Gimme Di Music.

In the meantime, the controversial Chi Chi Man song continues to do exceptionally well worldwide. In London, where concern has been expressed about the lyrics being homophobic, it continues to be so popular that the BBC Radio 1 cannot help playing it. The group will travel to London in early November for three shows, after which they will visit Germany and Switzerland. Last week they were in New York, where they were interviewed on BET's "106 and Park."

The event will be presented under the theme, "Technology, the Internet and Music Industry Development," and will include the usual concerts featuring artistes from the French, Spanish and English-speaking Caribbean countries, as well as meetings and exhibitions.

It will be staged by a restructured entity named Caribbean Music Expo Limited, a non-profit corporation.

Performers and producers who wish to participate in the concert events should contact the CME office. Details can be obtained from their website at www.cme.com.jm. Deadline for submissions of applications is December 31.

"We don't have a great deal of clientele coming in and out of the area. We do a lot of in-house projects," he pointed out.

One of their latest projects is the CD Authentic Mento Music, featuring the Blue Glaze Mento Band from Clarendon. This project flowed out of a previous one, which featured mento bands involved in the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission's annual competition. The Commission's mento recording programme has now created three CDs: a compilation album featuring four mento bands, Blue Glaze (Clarendon), Mount Peace (Hanover), Kew Park (Westmoreland and Rod Dennis (St. Catherine); one featuring Rod Dennis, produced by Donovan Germaine for his Penthouse Records and the latest featuring the Blue Glaze Mento Band and produced by Thompson at the One Love studio some two weeks ago.

Incidentally, Thompson is also behind the new series, Get In The Groove, featuring music from the 1960s, 70s and 80s, which kicks-off at the Jonkanoo Lounge at the Hilton New Kingston Hotel tonight.