Nick Mulvey, First Mind

Once a percussionist in the English jazz, indie-folk group, Portico Quartet, now a brilliant guitar player, Nick Mulvey, releases his debut album in the shadow, as if he wanted to suit the intimate sound he created on this record. He also played the hang, a 21st century percussion instrument, for those who are not familiar with it. But he’s a multi-instrumentalist and a free thinker it seems to me. Not only that his album is eclectic, it takes you to a special kind of atmosphere where you are pushed to dig deeper into yourself and think more freely. 

This music takes you on a grungy road trip (Juramidam) on a windy and intimate journey (First Mind), on a trip to some exotic places seen through the eyes of a northern man (Cucurucu). And that is precisely how I would describe this album, a northern man’s playing evocative of southern seas. Nick Mulvey did, indeed, spend some time in the Caribbean, he studied music in Cuba, he has a degree in ethnomusicology focusing on African music, and that’s where his vibe comes from. It as confusing combination of north and south, confusing since you have to think what this is, and who this man is, and what does his music remind you of. Well, it may remind you of Jack Johnson at places, Steve Reich, or John Butler Trio, or even Jose Gonzales. That is all up to you. But the truth is that this music takes you to some wonderful places you think you have but actually have never seen before.

The first single, Cucurucu, is a grower. It introduces you slowly into the atmosphere of the song, and then when the beat starts it is rhythmically delayed a bit. It makes you think at first, you start thinking, and then the song creeps in on you, and gets into your skin. It is about a young pigeon holding his mother at her feet, yearning to belong, while his mother sings him a lesson of life saying: listen to me son I’ll tell you why your father’s strong, cause he can still say every single day he’s yearning to belong. ’’And all of my manhood is cast, down in the flood of remembrance, and I weep like a child for the past singing cucurucu...’’ There, all of his manhood and pride are gone, he is reminiscing on his past and says he’s a man who cries and weeps, and wants to know where his home is. He’s yearning to belong. Everything is covered in fog of trying to remember of an ocean scent, of a wind that takes you back to where you really belong. It is now clear that this is one the best songs of this year.

Nick Mulvey is one of those people you just have to listen to, ears and then mind fixedly reproducing pictures, while you just dive and lose your senses. And it is not only because of music, when you come to hear the lyrics you will simply smile. 

La Roux, Trouble In Paradise

New lamps for old 

Now, there’s another great album no one will talk about, and another great tour no one will visit. And it’s only because their second album, Trouble in Paradise, doesn't have any catchy hook and therefore it will doubtfully yield any hit for them now. This is not what their (or just her, since the duo has separated and now it’s only Elly Jackson forming the group) fans expect anyway, but it seemed like it was the only way. I am always happy to write and talk about people who understand where music needs to go. This was the only way because music needs to go back to listening the albums, at least, artists need to respect fans who do that, who buy vinyls, CD's, or download integral albums.

 It seemed like Elly was interested in finding the perfect sound, and although 70’s indie pop might be totally in and in the same time a bit weary right now, you still have to know the sound to make it work. That’s it, know the sound. See it. Throughout the whole album you can see the ghosts of Blondie, Talking Heads, and it’s actually the new wave revival story. Synthesizers, drum machines, fuzzy and worn out guitar echos making a rock sound muffled in disco.  People have been doing that for the last couple of years, (Foster the People, Haim, Gossip) but nobody came this close. These echos are best shown in the first single, Uptight Downtown, not so much worth commenting lyrically, but only as a well-crafted song announcing the project.

The singles people will probably like the most would be Kiss And Not Tell and Sexoteque, for two reasons, the first being that they are the happiest tunes on the album and most likely to be played in clubs, the second being that they remind us, more than the others, of their previous songs like I’m Not Your Toy or Bulletproof. Let Me Down Gently, lyrically brilliant song, with a promising start and verses sounding much like Madonna’s late 80’s phase (Live to Tell and Like a Prayer) develops into a slow disco jam, lustful and innocent in the same time.

...I hope it doesn't seem like I’m young foolish and green, let me in for a minute, you’re not my life but I want you in it, and I hope it’s sinking, left behind your perfect skin, that’s a part of you that’s free, and I know there’s a place for me...

The last song on the album, The Feeling, is recorded in a way that impersonates an old recording, much like Jack White’s instant recording booth, only here La Roux needed much more engineering to be done. Anyhow, we needed that scoop of past not only for nostalgia’s sake, but to go back and think a little bit more about what we are going to do in the future, what type of sound we need to create. Tropical Chancer, had a big name included in it’s production, Jeff Bhasker, who previously collaborated with Alicia Keys (Girl on Fire) and Kanye West (My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, 808s & Heartbreak, and Watch the Throne with Jay-Z), other than that, it is Al Shux, Elly Jackson, and her previous band mate, Ben Langmaid who cut the cloth. 

It is inspiring to see artist standing their ground and fighting for their freedom of expression. I won’t go that far and discuss if it’s just a copy of a foggy disco sound, since I want my generation to sound that good and since we know that her creative ideas cost her losing her partner in crime, Ben Langmaid. Elly had approached him with some  old and rare disco recordings which he openly disliked from the very beginning of the writing, so she knew she had to carry on alone and pass her vision. He, on the other hand, knew he needed to help her with that before leaving, so they wrote a couple of songs more and disembarked/embarked on a yet another musical adventure. 

Sia, 1000 forms of fear

A three letter name that made pop sound dissolute and dauntless

Oh, that husky voice! Doesn't it sound amazing at the highest tone of Chandelier when she sings I'm gonna fly like a bird through the night, feel my tears as they dry, with all that metal weight in her voice? Yeah, it does, and it’s quite impressive. This album promises to sound more like her Zero 7 phase if we look at the cover, and if we listen to the leading single, Chandelier. 

But it’s not like that at all. It’s poppy, and P!nky at places I’d say, if we listen to the second track on the album, Big Girls Cry. But luckily that changes soon and the third track, Burn the pages  is more Sia, more dissolute and dauntless. That’s what we love about her. She shows you everything and then she just jumps. The same way she jumps into such a high register not being afraid of losing her voice, which she does sometimes, but that’s all part of the game, and that suits her character perfectly. 

I love Fair Game, it reminds me of young Dolly Parton, Lana del Rey, it’s a stripped and a simple storytelling that just stands out from everything else. Free the Animal, amazing track, but unfortunately not that original. From the very beginning it’s clear that it’s a Haim tribute, actually. Throughout the whole song you can simply see them rolling their hairs and dancing incoherently. It suits Sia as well, but the voices in the chorus shouting from behind are just a shameful production copy. In the Cellophane she goes country, she goes places, and that would be an interesting material to develop for this album. And from the title you would expect more fear and darkness spoken explicitly, but it’s actually very subtly shown in the very song titles with words such as: elastic, chandelier, eye of the needle, cellophane, knife, hostage, gasoline, dressed in black.

 It all makes a unity and a cohesive work that, truth be told, would sound much better with less production and more creative freedom that undoubtedly lies there. However, it still is somewhat different from the pop products, and promises to bring Sia a huge commercial breakthrough that she actually doesn't want, but definitely deserves.

                                 

As for Sia, this lady needs no introduction, she’s a pro. ’I know I’m good at it, singing and performing, but you get tired after so many years touring. I’d rather sit at home with my dogs and write songs for pop stars and make millions of dollars’’. So, who doesn't hate her and her indisputable talent. The originality comes and goes, but there is no doubt that Sia has such a unique tool of transforming everything into gold and take it to another level, just as she did so many pop singers, and paved a way for their careers to grow and for people to take them as serious artists. Yeah, well... that’s all Sia, folks!

I definitely recommend Fair Game, Cellophane, and Free the Animal, until the album comes out on the 8th of July. 

Clean Bandit + Jess Glynne = New Eyes

The happiest band of the year release their debut album, New Eyes, a perfect blend of classical and house music, after couple of years of struggle in the music industry. Nobody took them seriously. And why would they? It seems to me that the more pathetic you get today, more executives will think you are a serious selling material. Whatever happened to going to live shows, listening to bands playing live, whatever happened to that serious state of exuberance caused by good music? I don't know, but we somehow got stuck on Adele on YouTube and made it a trend.

Rather Be, the single that made Clean Bandit a place in the music business, is a happy happy tune, yet simple and profound, beautiful lyrics, but what makes the day are the amazing vocals by Jess Glynne, who is the one to watch in the nearest future. Her silvery, yet slightly husky voice is a perfect universal tone appealing to everybody.

The first single from the album, Mozart’s House, dates from 2010, and is the one that made them less credible in the eyes of music producers. It's perky and twisted in the same time, and definitely lots of fun. And it's definitely the group's credo. ''so you think house music is boring, you think it's stupid, you think it's repetitive,... now we made it to Mozart's House''. Extraordinary, sharing it’s sensibility with Rather Be, a soothing tune that probably gained it’s popularity thanks to the amazing video, introduces us to another amazing voice on the album, Sharna Bass.

                                                         

Everything you can hear on this album is screaming fun and freedom, it’s a crossover album of a band that don’t take themselves seriously, and therefore, that makes them honest, real musicians, spontaneous, and edgier than anybody else on the scene right now. 

Nikki Yanofsky: A young vocal powerhouse

Nikki Yanofsky, only 20, has already made some amazing connections and references from the music industry like Tony Bennet and Quincy Jones who was the executive producer on her latest album, Little Secret. A girl who was nicknamed a new Amy Winehouse by the French Rollingstone, definitely bears a certain resemblance to the late soul jazz icon, although more swingy, joyful, and although being on her own ground at the much higher register. Probably, they were referring to You mean the world to me, one of the best songs on the album. The first single, Something New, a Quincy Jones tribute, is screaming retro,sun, fun and happiness, and may exude too much happiness at moments. Waiting on the sun, a silky summer tune, brings so many positive reactions, even though it may come across as a bit loungy at moments, it still makes you feel good to the bone and makes your day.  Also, one more song that stands out from the Blue Cantrell, Jazmine Sullivan pseudo-aggressive themes or swingy finger snapping girl dance party themes, is definitely Out of Nowhere, non-forcibly retro tune, where her voice gets to its best.

She is young, radiating, and vocally unstoppable, but is it enough to make an impact the size of Amy or Duffy, I doubt so.

So, what’s lacking? Everything is there, in fact, there’s too much of it. And that’s a problem. We somehow don’t succeed to find Nikki Yanofsky within all this production boost, and even within her own self, her voice is so good, but it’s just that, really good. Nothing wrong with it. And today that’s just not working. Everybody knows it, you have to be average or know and understand average to be great. So this amazing girl came across as a teacher’s pet who can scat like nobody else on this planet, while she was only listening to her older mentors, hoping to achieve immediate success, and hence, got the’cute stamp’ and nothing more than that for now.

Sam Smith, In the lonely hour: One-sided love balladry in the search for identity

After reaching the tops of music lists worldwide with two massive hit singles with Disclosure (Latch) and Naughty Boy (La la la), Sam Smith releases his debut album in the lonely hour, a heartbroken balladry of the one in the shadow. His debut single, Lay me down, a beautiful tune on the verge of being a lullaby, ''...you told me not to cry when you're gone, but the feeling's overwhelming, it's much too strong...'', is where Sam Smith is on his own ground.

The sophomore single, Money on my mind, one of the two up-tempos from the album, is both cutting-edge and retro production-wise, whereas the other up-tempo, Restart, is a poor Whitney Houston/Beyoncé impersonation, but still comes across as amazingly soothing, especially in the verses. And it’s all thanks to his voice. All of this. Just thanks to that sheer power in his voice, but even before that, he bought us with his impeccable falsettos and his soothing lower register. The identity of the album is unknown. However, what Sam Smith has to offer is a special nuance of bitterness and heartbreak, both gnarled and beautifully molded. And this time it’s thanks to his personality, which we cannot but like. And when Mary J. Blige steps in for a duet, a new rendition of Stay with me,  you know that this guy has definitely something to offer, and my guess is he lured her with that suffering in his voice which they both share. The song is plain and simple but pristine, which is regarded as art today.

Other than that, I would definitely recommend a bluesy tune, I’m Not the Only One, in the style of John Mayer, guitar-wise, a tune you sing in a bar, wasted, alone since everybody else has gone home, sticking it to the universe with a slice of optimism left in your pocket. The optimism coming from his age maybe, it’s still to see on his sophomore album, but for now Sam Smith is safe and sound and luckily has all the attention a rookie in the music industry, especially in this genre, can get. And also, thanks to his collaborations with the godfather of the Third Brit Invasion, Eg White, as well as Fraser T. Smith and Steve Fitzmaurice, his album stands among the best releases of the year.

Natalia M. King: Kako pevač iz metroa, čak i na Saint-Germainu, ostaje pevač iz metroa

Jedan veoma sunčan dan, duga šetnja, i potpuno spontana odluka da odemo da slušamo koncert na Saint-Germainu a ne tribute to Aretha Franklin. Malo je falilo da odem i propustim Nataliu M. King, glas i pojavu koju ću pamtiti do kraja života. Toliko je mladih ljudi koji plaču i govore kako nikad neće postati uspešni i kako je strašno u Srbiji. A ne znam da li iko koga znam poseduje to što poseduje Natalia M. King. Nakon što je ostala bez novca počela je da peva u metrou kako bi zaradila za opstanak, a onda je slučajno jednog dana kamera prešla preko njenog lica i njen glas dobio priliku da peva i van podzemlja.

Koncert u luksuznom kvartu na trgu Saint-Germain počinje Ninom Simone, a potom prelazi na autorske pesme s novog albuma, Soulblazz, na kojem potpisuje većinu pesama. Soul, blues, jazz, ali je jasno da je ona zapravo rokerka – ’’You know, I’m a rocker at heart’’.  a tu je tribute Thelonious Monku, i sve to glasom bivše ljute rokerke, ali nikako bezobrazno drske poput današnjih, već toliko zrelim glasom koji će uvek ostati glas iz metroa. Onaj koji prosi za novac, onaj u kojem se čuje blues. Ej pa ko još danas ostane dosledan bluesu? A da nije hipster. Ovo je sve na nivou najvećih, a tek uživo je sila koja se samo s najvećima poput Ette James, Sama Cookea, Nine Simone može porediti. 

Najupečatljivija, i pesma koja predstavlja album je I’ve changed, koja slobodno može da se uvrsti među blues klasike. Pesma koja jednostavno predstavlja novu kožu, i ono kako kad ostariš prestaneš da se igraš, i kako svi imamo pravo na novu kožu. Lady of the night, u isto vreme seks i nevina brižnost, uživo zvuči potpuno oštro, negde između rocka i jazza. Stronger than I, monotoni soundtrack za kišu i čašu viskija, je najjača blues emanacija na albumu. Nasuprot njoj, Ring Ring Dingaling, razigrani swing o opsednutosti telefonima, prikazuje beg od buke istih, odnosno beg od prošlosti koja smara.

Album koji je izašao u aprilu, u izdanju izdavačke kuće Jazz Village, predstavlja savršeni spoj soul jazz i blues muzike, kao što to govori i sam naziv, savršeno je pitak ali nikako frivolni kolaž ljubiteljke jazzy zvuka. Natalia M. King je daleko originalnija od toga, čak i u izvođenju klasika koje smo toliko puta čuli. Glas, ali više pojava i prisustvo koje se zauvek uvuku pod kožu.  

Live in Saint-Germain-des-Prés