Soweto Kinch's London Launch for War In A Rack EP [Event Review]

soweto_warinarack

Being a Hip Hop MC and a saxophone player, Soweto Kinch has tried to bridge the gap between the Hip Hop and jazz genres to create his own unique sound for both types of audiences. Held last Sunday at Richmix in Shoreditch, London, this launch event was a showcase of his talent and ability to reach his target demographic whilst still aiming to bring in new fans to his music with samples from his new EP, War In A Rack.

Soweto and his core quartet started the show with an original jazz composition called “Never Ending”. It showcased his saxophone playing flair and combined with the quartet, made a beautiful piece of stirring jazz music. The problem though was that there was no real narrative throughout the arrangement. I lost concentration and it just felt like an unhinged jamming session.

Soweto then went into some audience participation and a range of freestyles to give us a taste of his vivid flow, his personality, his inventiveness and his expressive lyrics. One of the highlights of these freestyles was the word association freestyle in which he picks a word and gets various members of the audience to pick a word for each letter of that specific word. The word he picked was ‘launch’ and he created a full freestyle around this word. Witty, innovative, real and full of personality – the freestyles showed him in full swing as an artist in his element.

Then we were treated to some tracks from the EP which revealed Soweto getting back to his roots in Hip Hop, jazz and reggae. One track, “Sound the Alert”, reverted back to the popular reggae hooks from back in the day. He used this song to engage the audience in some call and response for the chorus. His flow and lyrics were direct and combined with the instrumental vehicle of his quartet, made a riveting throwback song to his Caribbean roots. Another track from the EP, “Can’t Hold Me Down”, had him singing on the chorus which bonded well with his expressive lyrics. If marketed correctly, it could be a success for him.

All in all, this gig was a triumph in the sense that it got his music out there in a way that record labels haven’t been able to, as well as demonstrate his talent and skills to a new army of fans. However, he does have a long way to go on his journey as an artist and in honing his new style of music. He’s definitely on the right path to winning his War in a Rack…

War in a Rack is out now on Soweto Kinch Productions [click to buy on iTunes].

Reviewed by Kamran Assadi

By

SoulCulture

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3 responses

  1. Tolita Avatar
    Tolita

    Admittedly I wasn’t at this gig but I find this review a bit harsh going by my own experience of Soweto live and on wax. It’s not for nothing he’s won two MOBO awards. True, awards aren’t always a very reliable litmus test for actual talent but there’s a lot to be said for the amount of appreciation and respect Mr Kinch has garnered over the years. I do not believe he’s as unpolished an artist as this article suggests and I’d be curious to know why the author seems to think so. To my knowledge Soweto is an accomplished artist and performer with more to give I’m sure. Perhaps he’s not commercial or superslick enough to get heavy rotation on MTV Base but that’s probably a good thing…

    Shalom x

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  2. [verb]swish Avatar
    [verb]swish

    Tolita is onto something here. I wasn’t at the gig either. Precisely why I wish some more thought had gone into the writing here.

    Firstly Soweto Kinch is a saxophonist and not a “saxophone player”, and yes it makes a difference. Reviewing jazz and getting that wrong is not a good look, or way to begin. But then the word ‘his’ occurs 13 times in the opening 3 paragraphs, and 26 times over all. Sorry, does not slide, even in J-School.

    “The problem though was that there was no real narrative throughout the arrangement. I lost concentration and it just felt like an unhinged jamming session.”
    Passable as an abstract whinge maybe, but jazz criticism – nope.

    What I would have expected, and what an artist of this calibre deserves is some background so that readers unfamiliar with his (extensive award-winning) work and credentials can see how this latest offering fits that oeuvre. Particularly relevant since the EP title is more than just clever wordplay. Seems to me there is a story that has been completely overlooked. Granted it’s a gig review, but some mention of the political undercurrent is needed, surely? Otherwise the only thing greater than the measure of palpable irony is the obsessive use of that personal pronoun, ‘his’.

    “However, he does have a long way to go on his journey as an artist and in honing his new style of music.”

    WHAT!? Is Louis Walsh writing this? Those of us who have actually listened to Soweto live and on record over the years, know that this is simply not true, nothing could be further from it. Even if it were true, the reviewer in this piece has failed to make a case for why, which is… his job.

    How can such a hard-working artist land such lazy reportage–(uncharacteristic of what I usually read here). Sadly, with reviewing like this I’m inclined to think, Mr Kinch was eerily right in a recent pre-gig video interview. “…We all now how mercurial the press can be.” You can watch that markedly more informative piece here: http://bit.ly/62fppL

    Reply
  3. jlvp Avatar
    jlvp

    I am not familiar with the artist or his music but i love music, it sounds like the arist here in question is good as music is his god given gift to sing, but what can cause an artist to perform below or not create out his vast revenue of creative ability? and i add, a God given talent, skill, creative gifting, well when an artist does’nt arrive at the place in his gifting where he recognises his truest potencial, he gets stuck in repectiveness and starts to merge his gift trying to find the essence again, but it’s not really gone just missled, the answer is for the artist whoever he or she is, to get back to the source of the gift there in lies a new and fresh fill of creative ispiration and infilling. Some may call it getting back to your roots, i am talking about getting to the seed.

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