Tag: soul

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Salami Rose Joe Louis – Always on my Mind

Salami Rose Joe Louis is the alias of Lindsay Olsen, who released her fifth album Akousmatikous – which losely transclates to “sound where there is no identifiable source” – earlier this month. As with much of her previous work, Akousmatikousi explores various shades of soul and jazz, but through a highly stylised and at times experimental lens, and includes features from some of her favourites artists, Soccer96, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Juuwah among them. Always on my Mind is one of the album’s more chill moments, with a lazy, tripping rhythm a suitably supple bed for her understated vocal delivery.

https://salamirosejoelouismusic.bandcamp.com/album/akousmatikous

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Eddie Chacon – Far Away

You know Eddie Chacon as one half of Charles & Eddie, the duo behind Would I Lie To You – one of the biggest hits of the early 90s and a song so overwhelmingly ubiquitous that Chacon eventually abandoned the music industry in an attempt to escape it. He returned in 2020 with a debut solo album, and has just released its follow-up, Sundown, from which Far Away is taken. Sitting somewhere between soft-focus soul and meandering jazz, its reminiscent of acts like Rhye, and is about as distant from the bombast of Would I Lie To You as its possible to get, which is probably the point.

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St. Paul & The Broken Bones – Sea Star

St. Paul & The Broken Bones pick up where they left off last year with the lead single from their recently announced second album, Angels in Science Fiction, due for release 21 April. Inspired by a story about a starfish that’s far too maddeningly twee for me to waste your time with, the song itself is, thankfully, a banger.

https://spbb.lnk.to/aisf

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Liv.e – Snowing!

I’m a bit late to the party on this one as it feels like everyone’s been singing the praises of Liv.e’s new album Girl In the Half Pearl for some time now, but I just couldn’t risk the ire of the music blogging community so am jumping on the appreciation bandwagon. Also: it’s really great, and about as varied an album as you’re likely to find anytime soon, from the full on soul balladry of Wild Animals to the arpeggiated chaos of Snowing!.

https://o-liv.bandcamp.com/album/girl-in-the-half-pearl

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Imani Wj Wright – So I Thought

There’s something immediately, hauntingly arresting about the scratchy, low-fi guitar strumming on this that I was sold even before Wright’s broken, beautiful vocal comes in. Then the beat drops, the melody surges, and I’m melting.

https://www.instagram.com/imaniwjwright1

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Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn – Crimson

Earlier this month Dawn Richards teamed up with multi-instrumentalist, producer, and composer Spencer Zahn on Pigments: an extraordinarily good album that explores themes including “the power of self-expression through living art, through motion”. A hypnotic mix of classical, jazz, soul and electronica, it flits between being deeply meditative and intensely rousing, often within a single song, before segueing seamlessly into the next . A truly impressive body of work.

https://lnk.to/Pigments

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St. Paul & The Broken Bones – Minotaur 

St. Paul and The Broken Bones is led by singer Paul Janeway (front).

Here’s one that completely passed me by, from all the way back in January. In a week in which pretty much everyone is – quite rightly – singing the praises of Gabriels’ incredible new album, I’m listening to an album which is similarly built around another extraordinary vocal performance, but that flew mostly under the radar, at least of many of the main music reviewers. The album, The Alien Coast, is unclassifiable in parts, but is at its most satisfying when it settles into its soul-forward groove, a la the stunning Minotaur.

https://atorecords-ffm.com/thealiencoast

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Kokoroko – Ewà Inú

London based 8-piece band Kokoroko released their debut album Could We Be More via Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings last week; an LP that deftly moves through afrobeat, highlife, soul, and funk across tracks, taking inspiration from a plethora of influences from within the West-African and Caribbean communities that the band grew up listening to. As with many of the tracks, Ewà Inú’s infectious energy is due to both its semi-improvised genesis and the passion of the players involved.

https://kokoroko.bandcamp.com

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Kyle Kidd – Scars Alight

A member of Cleveland’s multi-generational Mourning [A] BLKstar collective, Kyle Kidd’s debut solo album Soothsayer is a deeply moving, highly personal exploration of many of the themes that have defined their life so far, including blackness, gender nonconformity, American history, community and more. Their vocal performance throughout is extraordinary: you can hear that this is not just sung, but deeply felt by the artist. Scars Alight – which explores the damage done by Kidd not feeling as if they were not truly accepted for who they are – is a highlight, but this need to be listened to in its entirety to be properly appreciated.

https://kylekidd.bandcamp.com/album/soothsayer-3

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Zenizen, Helado Negro – Drought

New York-based Zenizen’s new album P.O.C Proof Of Concept came out last week, and it is a hidden gem if ever there was one. Sitting somewhere between r&b, soul and experimental, it is at times hard hitting and immediate, others meditative, with warm chords and soothing melodies leading the way, as is the case on Drought. This track in particular actually came out back in April, but it’s currently sitting at eleven plays on YouTube, (eleven!), so like me, there’s a fair chance you missed it.

https://zenizenzenizen.bandcamp.com/album/p-o-c-proof-of-concept