Tag: r&b

Categories
Music

GENA – This Is So Crazy

GENA (short for “God Energy, Naturally Amazing,”) is a new collaborative project from drummer and producer Karriem Riggins and singer-songwriter, rapper, and producer Liv.e. Their debut The Pleasure Is Yours is informed by jazz, soul, and hip-hop, with enough electronic weirdness to keep me happy. There’s definitely something about this that feels special, I’m just not entirely sure I love it yet. What I do know however is that This Is So Crazy is insanely good, coming in like Prince’s I Could Die For You as seen through a spectral haze.

https://genagenagena.bandcamp.com/album/the-pleasure-is-yours

Categories
Music

Durand Jones & The Indications – Let’s Take Our Time 

A fresh A-side from Durand Jones & The Indications finds drummer and falsetto king Aaron Frazer taking the lead on Let’s Take Our Time, a song that has been billed as a Mayfield-era Impressions’-adjacent track, but to my (admittedly untrained ears) sound more like a Smokey Robinson tribute. Either way, it’s likely you’ll know the kind of area in which they’re operating.

https://durandjonesandtheindications.bandcamp.com/album/lets-take-our-time-flower-moon

Categories
Music

SAULT – Protector

SAULT start the year with a typically low-key release, their new album Chapter 1 emerging out of the January mists with barely a whisper of hype. Predictably it’s great, perhaps even a career highlight. Time will tell; but if you can’t find something to enjoy with Protector I’m really not sure what’s wrong with you.

https://saultglobal.bandcamp.com/album/chapter-1

Categories
Music

anaiis – Green Juice

Recorded at 5dB Studios in London, anaiis’s new albbum Devotion & The Black Divine explores uncertainty, acceptance, and the experience of new motherhood. The album reflects anaiis’s growing sense of grace and creative freedom, capturing human emotion in its raw, shifting form. I was a big fan of her last album – 2021’s This Is No Longer A Dream – and on the first few listens it seems as if Devotion will prove a worthy successor.

https://anaiis.bandcamp.com/album/devotion-the-black-divine

Categories
Music

Mariah the Scientist, Kali Uchis – Is It a Crime

Every Mariah the Scientist album so far has included a track that’s reduced me to a helpless mess: All For Me from RY RY WORLD and Reminders from MASTER, so anticipation was high for her latest, HEARTS SOLD SEPARATELY. Sure enough she’s done it again, this time with the Kali Uchis collab Is It a Crime made with producers Mat1k, Oliver Easton, and Nineteen85, the latter of whom is part of the duo Dvsn with which this track shares notable similarities. It’s so good!

https://mariahthescientist.lnk.to/HEARTSSOLDSEPARATELY

Categories
Music

Léa Sen – lvl 3 EDGE OF THE MAP

Sultry, low-key r&b for you today from French-born, London-based singer-songwriter and producer Léa Sen who first came to prominence with a breathy, resonant vocal on Joy Orbison’s Better in 2021, quickly followed by collaborations with Sampha, Oscar Jerome, Wu‑Lu, and Vegyn. This is taken from her debut LP LEVELS which was co-produced with her brother Florian, with each track representing a different floor in a liminal hotel of memory and growth.

https://leasen.bandcamp.com/album/levels

Categories
Music

Lauren Duffus – Liar

Unbelievably good, taken from her recent Can’s Gone Warm EP. Sits somewhere between John Glacier and Kate Bush. Ridiculous.

https://laurenduffus.bandcamp.com/album/cans-gone-warm

Categories
Music

Ericka De Casier

Ericka De Casier mines 00s r&b to incredibly convincing effect on her latest, entirely self-produced album Lifetime, and it might very well be her best yet. The title track is the final on the LP, with drums emerging from a billowing cloud of synths before shimmering keys and her yearning vocal take centre stage. For fans of Sade, Janet Jackson and being very romantic.

https://erikadecasier.bandcamp.com/album/lifetime

Categories
Uncategorized

duendita – cutie

duendita’s cutie lands as one of the standout tracks from their new album a strong desire to survive, out via MIKE’s 10k label. It’s a low-slung, slightly off-kilter soul tune that leans into brittle drums, tangled instrumentation and a vocal that pulls everything into place without trying too hard.

https://duendita.bandcamp.com/album/a-strong-desire-to-survive

Categories
Music

Saya Gray – PUDDLE ( OF ME )

Saya Gray’s debut album SAYA is out now. It’s a loose, low-key collection that floats between folk, R&B and experimental pop – mostly quiet, often heavy. Written after a breakup and a solo trip through Japan, the record feels personal without over-explaining. Sketchy guitar loops, voice notes, half-sung vocals – it’s all pretty stripped-back and all the better for it with PUDDLE ( OF ME ) a clear standout.

https://sayagray.bandcamp.com/album/saya