Tag: Marvin Gaye

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Nick Hakim Returns with His Spectral Take on Singer/Songwriter Soul

With the release of Where Will We Go Part 1 and Where Will We Go Part 2, the Washington, DC-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Nick Hakim quickly established a national and international profile for a sound that effortlessly blurs genres as it possesses elements of classic soul, the blues, the soulful troubadour tradition of Van Morrison and others with hauntingly spectral electronic production and a soul-bearing, confessional intimacy.

Now, it’s been some time since I’ve written about him; however, Hakim has been busy writing and recording the material that would eventually comprise his forthcoming full-length debut Green Twins, which is slated for a May 19, 2017 release through ATO Records. Interestingly, Hakim can trace the origins of Green Twins’ material to when armed with the masters for Where Will We Go Part 1 and Where Will We Go Part 2, the Washington, DC-born singer/songwriter relocated from Boston to where he was based at the time to Brooklyn. And as soon as he moved, he spent his time fleshing out incomplete songs, writing and recording sketches and lyrics on voice memos and a four-track cassette recorder. The Washington, DC-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter then took his demo’d material to studios in NYC, Philadelphia and London and built upon them with a number of engineers, including Andrew Sarlo (bass, engineering and production), who were tasked with keeping the original spirit and essence of the songs intact. As Sarlo explained in press notes, for many artists, a demo usually serves as a rough sketch of what the song could eventually become; however, for Hakim, the feeling is that the demos are much more like creating a temple — and as a result, you simply clean, furnish and prepare entrants for a profoundly religious experience.

Thematically speaking, the material on the album focuses on particular aspects o this life. As Hakim mentions in press notes, a lot of the material is based on what he was thinking at that very moment, and in many ways the album consists of a series of self-portraits. “I also felt the need to push my creativity in a different way than I had on the EPs,” Hakim says in press notes. “The record draws from influences spanning Robert Wyatt, Marvin Gaye and Shuggie Otis to My Bloody Valentine. We wanted to imagine what it would have sounded like if RZA had produced a Portishead album. We experimented with engineering techniques from Phil Spector and Al Green’s Back Up Train, drum programming from RZA and Outkast, and we were listening to a lot of The Impressions, John Lennon, Wu-Tang, Madlib and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.” And as soon as you hear the album’s first single “Bet She Looks Like You,” the confessional and intimate songwriting remains, as it’s soul-bearing to a point of being heartbreakingly visceral; but it manages to be a subtle expansion upon his sound — the song manages to remain hauntingly spectral while possessing an equally subtle, bluesy swagger.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

With the release of “Ain’t No Use,” the first single and title track off the Cornwall, UK-born, London-UK-based singer/songwriter Matt Woods‘ recently released Ain’t No Use, Woods has received both national and international acclaim with major blogs such as Pigeons and Planes describing his sound as “dramatic,” and Blah Blah Science praising his songwriting as “top class hook writing.” And adding to a growing international profile, “Ain’t No Use” topped both Spotify’s Global Viral Chart with the EP’s second song “Nothing Less” topping Hype Machine‘s chart.

Ain’t No Use‘s third and latest single “Styrofoam” will further cement the up-and-coming British singer/songwriter’s burgeoning reputation for crafting sultry, Quiet Storm-inspired R&B-leaning pop in which his soulful falsetto crooning is paired with a sparse, contemporary production featuring shuffling drum programming, swirling and subtly droning electronics and a soaring hook in a song that clearly sounds indebted to late 70s and early 80s R&B — in particular bearing a resemblance to Midnight Love-era Marvin Gaye.

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays The Veldt Return with Sensual and Moody Visuals for “In A Quiet Room”

Now, earlier this year the newly reformed The Veldt released the first batch of new material in almost 20 years with the release of The Shocking Fuzz of Your Electric Fur: The Drake Equation Mixtape an effort which revealed a subtle meshing of the original The Veldt sound with that of Apollo Heights — and the result is a sound that pairs towering and shimmering guitar chords, tweeter and woofer rocking beats and Danny Chavis’ soulful yet ethereal crooning as you would have heard on the swooning “Sanctified” and their sultry yet moody latest single “In A Quiet Room.” And as those two singles and the tour supporting their EP revealed, the band’s sound manages to make a vital and important connection between The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Cocteau Twins, The Verve, Fishbone, Marvin Gaye, Prince and TV on the Radio among others.

Directed by Toshi Kaneiwa, the recently released music video possesses a painterly quality as the gorgeously shot black and white video features a nude woman brooding and posing in a room. And with each shot, you can almost picture an unseen photographer or painter creating a moody portrait.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

With the release of his critically praised 2002 debut, The Headphone Masterpiece, singer/songwriter Cody ChesnuTT was universally hailed as a modern-day soul troubadour with many critics comparing his early work to the likes of Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield and Stevie Wonder, thanks in part for frank and socially conscious rumination on modern Black life. Interestingly, ChesnuTT’s rise to critical and commercial acclaim came about as part of a particularly conscious neo-soul movement that included Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, The Roots and others, proving that artists can release work that’s important, relevant and necessary — and be fairly commercially successful. But after a meteoric rise that included a collaboration with The Roots, ChesnuTT abruptly disappeared from public view for the better part of a decade. And in that decade period, ChesnuTT went through a period of deep, personal reflection and observation and raised a family — and those experiences informed and influenced his 2012 sophomore effort Landing on a Hundred, an effort linked contemporary Black music to the classic, singer/songwriter soul of Marvin Gaye, Bill Withers, Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield and others while pointing out that the hopes, frustrations, loves, and struggles that those legendary artists spoke about then have remained unchanging.

After touring to support Landing on a Hundred, ChesnuTT had been pretty busy, contributing to the soundtracks for the Oscar Award-winning major motion pictures 12 Years A Slave and Idris Elba Presents Mi Mandela, as well as working on the material that will comprise his forthcoming, third, full-length effort My Love Divine Degree, slated for a February 2017 release.  Produced by Anthony “The Twilight Tone” Khan, a BMI Award, Grammy-nominated producer, songwriter and DJ, who has worked with Kanye West, Common, John Legend and Pusha T., the album will reportedly further cement ChesnuTT’s reputation for writing frank and earnest observations of modern Black life, while pushing the boundaries of what contemporary R&B and soul can sound like. Interestingly, the album’s second and latest single “I Stay Ready” is according to ChesnuTT is a call to arms for positivity in the face of adversity. As the singer/songwriter explains in press notes “In a time of global economic uncertainty, it is an uplifting charge to use one’s natural talents and gifts of creativity to forge ahead positively into purpose and economic well being.

The feeling of this track is rooted in one of the most beautiful guitar riffs I’ve ever been given…a gem that found me ‪around 4AM. Accompanied by the exciting drum breaks programmed by legendary Chicago DJ Anthony ‘The Twilight Tone’ Kahn, the energy and sentiment of the song for me, is a pure shot of life.”

Sonically speaking, the song finds ChesnuTT’s silky smooth vocals paired with big, 808-like breakbeats, layers of buzzing synths, sinuous bursts of guitar and distorted vocal samples in a swaggering and cocksure song that may arguably be one of the most upbeat, “we can do this” songs he’s released to date.

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Last Friday marked the 32nd anniversary of Marvin Gaye‘s tragic and untimely death — while Saturday would have marked Gaye’s 77th birthday. Recently as a tribute to Marvin Gaye’s incredible influence on contemporary music, Counterweight Records‘ producer and DJ, DJ Devastate and self-professed synth guru Segerfalk went to Analog Sweden‘s studio to record a rework and re-imagining of Gaye’s beloved classic song “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” that DJ Devastate and Segerfalk have titled “Do You Cry?” And the rework pairs DJ Devastate and Segerfalk’s boom-bap beat heavy production featuring twinkling synths and swirling electronics with Marvin Gaye’s iconic and silky smooth vocals — this time as the song’s hook and chorus — along with guest spots from Joe Lefty and Chapee.

Simliar to  Red Hot + Fela, the Fela Kuti tribute album featuring reworked and reimagined songs from Kuti’s enormous catalog, DJ Devastate, Segerfalk, Joe Lefty and Chapee’s tribute to Marvin Gaye manages to be more than just a fresh take on a song that several generations have been intimately familiar with for quite some time, it’s an adept meshing of hip-hop and classic soul that should remind listeners of Gaye’s how much Gaye and his peers have influenced contemporary music. But perhaps much more important, this rework should remind folks — especially those who were too young to remember when he was alive — of the fact that Marvin was a vital and sensual presence you had to pay attention to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Trippy and Introspective Visuals for The Veldt’s “Sanctified”

Last month, I wrote two rather lengthy posts on the pioneering Raleigh, NC/NYC-based shoegaze quintet The Veldt. Currently comprised of founding members and identical twin brothers Daniel Chavis (vocals, guitar) and Danny Chavis (guitar) along with […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Earlier, I wrote a lengthy post about pioneering Raleigh, NC/NYC-based shoegaze quintet The Veldt. Currently comprised of founding members and identical twin brothers Daniel Chavis (vocals, guitar) and Danny Chavis (guitar) along with Hayato Nakao (bass), Frank Olsen (guitar), and Martin Levi (drums), the quintet can trace their origins to the vital and quirky Chapel Hill, NC music scene of the late 80s and early 90s — a scene that featured Superchunk (perhaps, the best known out of that entire scene), Polvo, Dillon Fence and others. Initially featuring the Chavis Brothers and Levi along with Joseph “Hue” Boyle (bass) and later David Burris, The Veldt managed to be a rather extreme rarity  as shoegaze act prominently featuring black men in a genre, as well as a place and time in which it was considered highly unusual — and honestly still is; however, despite how unusual it seemed, the then-Chapel Hill, NC-based band quickly attained “must-see” status in their home city and a rapidly growing national profile with the release of their debut effort Marigolds. 

Their 1994 Ray Shulman-produced sophomore effort Afrodisiac propelled the band towards international recognition and the band wound up opening and touring with the likes of  The Jesus and Mary Chain, Lush, Oasis, Cocteau Twins, Pixies, Fishbone, Corrosion of Conformity and others. Unfortunately, throughout their initial run together, the members of the band found with their management and labels who found them “too difficult to market” as their sound meshed elements of old school soul and shoegaze. And unsurprisingly, the band got dropped from their label. Struggling to fund writing, recording, releasing and marketing their work and touring, the band went through several lineup changes before officially going on hiatus in 1998.

Several years later, the Chavis Brothers had relocated to New York and started their post The Veldt project, Apollo Heights, which received quite a bit of buzz locally for a sound that added trip-hop and electronica to their previous mix of shoegaze and soul. In fact, I can clearly remember reading a raving and informative profile of the band in the old New York Press, a few years before I started to write for the publication. And honestly, it shouldn’t be surprising that critics and journalists were raving about the band — their 2007 Apollo Heights debut White Music For Black People was produced by Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie and featured guest spots from Guthrie on guitar, Mos Def, Lady Kier of Deee- Lite, TV on the Radio‘s Dave Sitek, and Mike Ladd.

Sadly, despite their early successes the Chavis Brothers work have been reduced to largely cult-favorite status; but interestingly enough, their work in The Veldt and Apollo Heights has managed to quietly reverberate and influence some highly regarded contemporary musicians — the members of  Bloc Party and TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek have publicly claimed The Veldt as influences on their work and sound, which has proven that the Chavis Brothers had the somewhat bitter misfortunate of being about 20 years ahead of their time; however, with the forthcoming release of The Shocking Fuzz of Your Electric Fur: The Drake Equation Mixtape, their first batch of original material in almost 20 years, the members of the reformed band seek to firmly establish their claim as the forebears and pioneers of a sound and aesthetic that has captured the blogosphere and fans by storm. And interestingly enough, they hop they do so in a similar fashion to the incredible renaissance that the members of Detroit-based proto-punk/proto-metal band Death has seen over the past few years.

“Sanctified,” the first single off The Shocking Fuzz reveals how deeply indebted TV on the Radio’s sound is to The Veldt as towering squalls of guitar chords played through gentle amounts of reverb paired with skittering yet propulsive drum programming and Danny Chavis’ soulful crooning in a tender and swooning song that evokes the feeling of being desperately, madly, stupidly in love — in a way that nods at subtly cosmic version of The Jesus and Mary Chain, if they had been influenced by Fishbone , Marvin Gaye and Prince; in other words, it’s shoegaze that manages to be irresistibly sexy.

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Introducing Tameca Jones and Her Upbeat and Contemporary Take on Classic Soul

https://soundcloud.com/tameca-jones-155380010/hot-and-bothered-master-tameca-jones Austin, TX-based soul singer/songwriter Tameca Jones first came to attention when she joined the locally acclaimed band, 8 Million Stories. When the band split up a few years later, Jones turned to covering a […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Chicago-based. singer-songwriter The ELLE can trace the origins of her music career to when she started using various forms of writing as an emotional and creative outlet when she was 8; however, despite the fact […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Released two years ago, Cody ChesnuTT‘s Landing on a Hundred was one of my favorite albums as it was the first co-number 1 on this site’s Best of 2012 List, and among a list of my favorite soul/R&B albums […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

A Q&A with Rene Lopez

Rene Lopez is the son of Rene Lopez Sr, the salsa trumpeter who had played with the Ray Barretto Orchestra and Tipica 73, arguably two of the most highly regarded and beloved salsa acts of […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

A Q&A with the Dough Rollers’ Jack Byrne and Josh Barocas

Jack Byrne and Malcolm Ford formed the Dough Rollers in 2008, after bounding over their mutual love and appreciation for the blues. And much like countless bands before them, there have been a number of […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Album Review: Cody ChesnuTT’s Landing on a Hundred

Cody ChesnuTT Landing on a Hundred One Little Indian Records Release Date: October 30, 2012   Track Listing ‘Til I Met Thee I’ve Been Life That’s Still Mama What Kind of Cool (Will We Think […]