Always at the forefront of experimental hip-hop and R&B, Plug Research's newest act continues the label's track record of producing adventurous, dynamic music. Hawthorne Headhunters is a collaboration between St. Louis artists Black Space and Coultrain, accompanied by a coterie of musicians. Until their new album, Myriad Of Now, sees release in 2012, you can bide your time with their first single, "If You Were My Baby." On this track, ballooning, oscillating synths envelop a slinky, minimal drum loop. Coultrain's vocals wedge their way into the shifting arrangements, while Black Spade's exploratory lyrics examine relationship dynamics before fading away in a pensive monologue.
From their elemental beginnings, with erstwhile Little Brother member Phonte rapping over beats literally mailed by producer Nicolay on debut Connected, to a digital update on adult pop with last year's Authenticity, wherein Phonte now sings, The Foreign Exchange has been anything but monotonous. "All The Kisses," featuring the supplemental vocals of Paris and Amber Strother, is as good an indication as any of The Foreign Exchange's increasingly sophisticated, polished, and seductive sound. Over a sofa-smooth, bold, and plump beat by Nicolay, Phonte cautions an exiting love, "You might miss all the kisses that I gave you," giving new spins to the complicated relationship politics of Fleetwood Mac. "All The Kisses" is a brand new studio track off of the upcoming live album/DVD Dear Friends: An Evening With The Foreign Exchange, out next week on Foreign Exchange Music.
He's named after one of the best daytime cartoons of all time, he plays bass in Suicidal Tendencies, and his new album is produced by Flying Lotus. What is there not to like about Thundercat? The man otherwise known as Stephen Bruner made an appearance on last year's FlyLo album Cosmogramma, on standout glitch-soul track "Mmmhmm." Though "Daylight" shares that song's crystalline keyboards and a vibe that hearkens back to '70s jazz fusion, its odd time signatures and serpentine movements are coated in more polished, less compressed surfaces. But Thundercat's breathy, smooth vocals and webbed bass playing are still intact, so you can gain a clearer insight into what was going on beneath the murk. Nonetheless, this is by no means a predictable artist, and who knows what else we'll hear when The Golden Age Of Apocalypse, Thundercat's FlyLo-produced debut, drops August 30th on Brainfeeder.
Dudley Perkins and Georgia Anne Muldrow have been releasing music through their SomeOthaShip imprint for some time, but locating an online source of information has been relatively difficult. All that has changed with the recent launch of the SomeOthaShip website (which you can find here), and to mark the occasion, Perkins and Muldrow have released a free compilation, SomeOthaShip Connect 2011, in conjunction with the site's debut. One of the standouts is the Madlib-produced "Apocalyptic Music," featuring the mellifluous vocals of Aloe Blacc and helmed by Perkins' bizarro MC alter ego, Declaime. The opening notes are otherworldly—sci-fi sirens and Sun Ra-style drum bumps—only to become just one element in a rich, intricate soul loop, anchored by Madlib's signature compressed bass and hand claps. Aloe Blacc's chorus is nearly spectral, floating gently and eerily over the beat, all while Declaime's rambunctious and cotton-mouthed delivery playfully romps through the music. From its name down to this track, SomeOthaShip appears to be so far out it may as well be in another galaxy, which only foretells more exciting developments from out in the deep cosmos.
Szjerdene (pronounced Jerdine) hasn't been around very long, but based on the little music released thus far, one can hear a bright future for the London-based singer. On new single "Lead The Way," out now courtesy of the brilliant people at Plug Research, she obtains the assistance of Quadron musical mastermind Robin Hannibal. The Danish studio wizard furnishes Szjerdene's truffle-rich voice with a supple backdrop of variously shaped and pitched horns, fluorescent-lit keyboards, glitzy guitar licks, and muffled, yet bouncy, drums. Aside from the track's deft meshing of '60s pop, '70s funk and soul, and '80s R&B, Hannibal's music is notable for an attention to detail and shape that's more common among contemporary electronic music producers. And Szjerdene practically melts into the music, singing a melody so smooth and natural that you could swear it's been around forever.
We've already given you one track off of the Wolf + Lamb vs. Soul Clap's DJ-Kicks, one of the best installments in the !K7 series, and the compilation/mix only further engenders melodic earwigs. On "In The Park," SECT—i.e. Charlie and Eli of Soul Clap, Sergio Santos, and Tanner Ross—offer up another one of their distinctive, brilliant house-not-house cuts. With its signature slow tempo, burning bright bass, and humid percussive peppering, the track is in some ways indebted to Chilean-German artist Ricardo Villalobos even as it eschews his smallness and abstraction. Featuring the frail, free-floating vocal contribution of Ben Westbeech, "In The Park" sounds like Basement Jaxx's R&B tracks in the late '90s—smooth, elegant, and finely sculpted—but with a fixation on detail and ornamentation that places it into another category, one that as of yet has no name, but plenty of identity.
At nearly 35 years of age, Teedra Moses should already have multiple hit singles and albums on her CV. Instead, the New Orleans native has one cult classic, 2004's Complex Simplicity, literally one of the best contemporary R&B albums of the past decade. Moses' thick, ribboned voice is so captivating because it never lapses into glottal burring, yet it is also able to slowly climb registers without ever resorting to falsetto bragging contests; her voice has range and modesty. Musically, producer Paul Poli's sound had tremendous foresight: its plush drums and waterfall keyboards can be heard in everything from The-Dream to Polow da Don to "Aston Martin Music." Incidentally, Moses' upcoming The Young Lioness will be released on Rick Ross' Maybach Music Group, though a set date has yet to be announced. On this dance remix of Moses' first single "R U 4 Real," you can still her magnificent voice as she aches and pleads over an excellent and dramatic club-house and R&B backdrop furnished by producer Donnie Cash.
Like the mythological Greek craftsman from whom his name presumably originates, Daedelus has constructed a labyrinth of music, the exploration of which may seem like a daunting task. But I envy the person who has yet to encounter the many guises and sounds of the L.A. beat artisan, considering the consistently terrific quality of nearly all of his releases. For his new album, Bespoke, Daedelus has corralled a sterling roster of musicians, including Busdriver, Baths, and, on "Overwhelmed," Bilal. Fans of the latter's work on last year's exploratory and vivacious Airtight's Revenge can hear more of the singer's leftfield approach to contemporary R&B. Against Daedelus' backdrop of clamorous, tumbling, enormous drum breaks and searing guitars, Bilal's strained and fuzzed-up vocals claw their way out of the ruckus. Bespoke is out April 11th on Ninja Tune, and Daedelus heads out on the Magical Properties 3 Tour with Tokimonsta, Shlohmo, and what sounds like a light show that dwarfs your local Dark Side of the Moon Laserium show. Tour begins March 15th at Trees in Dallas, and you can see a full list of tour dates here.
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