New York bred songstress Sy Smith, has been one of the only artist who has been able to beautifully walk the tightrope between dance music, and neo-soul music. Its release delayed whilst working on other projects and touring with The Foreign Exchange, her fourth album Fast and Curious proves worth the wait, with evolved production throughout by Mark de Clive Lowe.
The name Mara Hruby flows off your tongue like a beautiful melody, so it’s only fitting that she chose music as her career. Starting early — singing in class and listening to music constantly at home with family - it was her natural path.
I probably shouldn't say this, but what I witnessed in Paris on a cold Sunday night was a legendary performance. I've seen a few legends in my time, most recently perhaps Prince at the O2, and Sunday night was up there with it. There, I said it.
Le Zenith was the setting for D'Angelo's French leg of his European tour, his 'comeback' tour, a whole 12 years after his last album Voodoo was released. I won't bore you with the well documented trials and tribulations in his hiatus, something he alluded to with a re-iteration of the end phrase of the opening line from "One Mo'Gin"- 'I know some things have changed since the last I've seen you/some good/some for the bad baby.' But I'm getting ahead of myself here…
Los Angeles hailing singer/songwriter Jhene Aiko [pronounced juh-nay ahh-ee-ko], 23, first emerged on the R&B scene at a young age whilst signed to Epic Records alongside the likes of B2K and Omarion, whom she met at elementary school. “LA is a city of entertainment, so everybody ends up meeting each other so you run into everybody. I think the entertainment business is like a high school,” she says.
Four time Grammy Award-nominated singer, songwriter and producer Ledisi returns with her highly anticipated fifth studio album Pieces of Me and we’ve not been able to put it down for the week or so that we’ve had it in our possession. It’s certainly not her previous LP Turn Me Loose, and why would it be? It doesn’t need to be because she’s already done that and fans that were expecting another record in that same vein will be disappointed but only for a short while as Pieces of Me proves to stand on it’s own as a definitive body of work showing progression, growth and certainly a more mature outlook than it’s predecessors.
Whilst the bridge between Hip Hop and Soul music has mainly been associated with the samples used/stolen by Diddy in the '90s [and in recent times, Kanye West], a select few artists rather choose to incorporate the two genres rather than taking snippets from one to expand on the other.
Stones Throw artist Aloe Blacc has been one of a handful of artists to encapsulate the spirits of traditional Jazz, Hip Hop and Soul music. The brilliant Shine Through album in 2006 brought forth a raw gem in the shape of fusing stirring vocals with rap beats and haunting African jazz. Good Things hopes to follow in the same underground success as his previous work did four years ago.
Four albums deep and on the promo run for his latest LP, W.ants W.orld W.omen, this week SoulCulture caught up with a certain Mr Andwele "Dwele" Gardner.
He needs little introduction; something of a figurehead for today's Soul music - "neo" or otherwise - the Detroit-based singer, songwriter and producer became a staple voice in the next soul wave ever since his first single "Find A Way" dropped in 2003 from his debut release on Virgin Records, Subject.
Today's subjects are the pros and cons of being accessible online - namely, how the singer reacts to blunt fan feedback on Twitter and how social networking sites present useful opportunities for him to connect with those who'd like to work with him, with no other means of contacting him.
He also talks about his feelings on watching the current sagas among his friends and several time collaborators Slum Village unfold publicly online.
But first, we start with the new album....
How does one comment on a performance that felt more like a bout in a ring with a heavyweight champion than with a Neo soul crooner who hasn’t released an album in nine years and has kept, more or less, to the fringes of the supposedly dead music genre ever since?
You start, of course, by recovering and if you can’t do that you at least start by recollecting the significant blows. The ones that made your eyes water, that made your ears ring like wind chimes or had your stomach acids turning upwards before your legs went numb and your face met the cold floor.
Just in case you haven’t guessed already, the heavyweight champion I’m referring to is born Philadelphian singer/songwriter Bilal Sayeed Oliver and the performance; his live no holds barred show at Fabric in London on Wednesday 14th July.
When hearing Leela James' decadent, husky vocals on a track, you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd been dropped into a 1970s time warp. Everything from the album art to her musical tone invokes a feeling of nostalgia for that era of classic soul, regardless of whether you were alive then or not.
My Soul is James’ third release and her first since being signed to soul label Stax Records. It was released on the 25th of May 2010 and debuted at number 7 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip Hop albums chart.
The debut album from UK sensation Rox Tataei truly lives up to its name. This is indeed a warts-and-all exposé of her romantic history so far. From regret over the one that got away (‘Heart Ran Dry’) to recounting the unhinged antics of her current beau’s ex-girlfriend- a menace to the happiness of her relationship (hidden track ‘Gallais’), Rox does not hold back.
Such honesty can provoke one of two reactions from the listener-either it isolates us because it’s all a little too personal or it endears us to the artist, as if we’re being let into their confidence. In this instance it’s a case of the latter, thanks to Rox’ lovely alchemy of memorable melodies and well-crafted lyrics.