Let your speakers ripple on the emerging influx of spacey, forward-thinking, progressive, slightly off-kilter, bugged-out, psychadelic, acid-Rn’B, electro-funk, soul music… or as I sometimes refer to it, Soultronica.
After a stagnant decline in the last decade (starting off tenaciously with the emerging Neo-Soul trend in the late 90s which by now seems to have deteriorated), you’ll be forced admit it’s a very exciting time for Black music. As some artists of that era struggle to maintain an athletic relevance (e.g. Musiq’s corny arse, lyrically Lloyd/R. Kelly’esque new Crunk-n’-B single ‘Radio‘ which complete with Atlanta strip-club synths, is perchance an un-wise career move as it wreaks of commercial desperation and could severely repel his unanimous core fanbase); others such as Erykah Badu embrace the offspring of this Rainbow Child generation by injecting the sound of these seeds into her latest LP alongside her own vintage sonance (i.e. ‘My People’, ‘Twinkle’, ‘Master Teacher’).
I also believe this sound I’m trying to characterize lies affectionately somewhere between…
Point A:
A Funk come New Wave god of ‘the Minneapolis sound’.
&
Point B:
A pioneering Hip-Hop prophet of ‘the Detroit sound’.
Maybe also what we’re seeing is greater than the categorization of soul music itself- as a growing number of Black artists refuse to be pigeonholed in an effort to reject mainstream mundanity and draw back the eclectic, imaginative light under which many great Black musicians have been illuminated: Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, Funkadelic, George Clinton, Parliament, Prince, Joan Armatrading, Tracey Chapman, Tina Turner and most recently even Outkast to name but a few of the conspicuous ones.
The next wave is here- are you listening? (Don’t turn around in 2 years and act like I didn’t tell you so).
-J*Davey – Beauty In Distortion/Land of The Lost [2008]
As a primary example of this burgeoning genre, I assure you the following debut offering by percussive LA duo J*Davey is the most fearless and exciting soul(tronica) album of 2008; unafraid to fortify influences that suggest a hybrid of the Eurythmics crossbred with J-Dilla and even acclimatize some of these sonics to contemporary pop music (as illustrated on ‘Mister Mister’) and yet build lush, magnetic soundscapes such as ‘Enterception’ that make your heart float on a bed of protons, whilst not forgetting to emphasise one of groups key strengths- Miss Jack Davey’s labia dripping sensuality- via ‘No More’.
I believe out of any Soultronica act that has modish appeal to crack the mainstream, it could very well be J*Davey. But will those fucking record label pussies market/promote this shit right (keeping in mind they are signed to a major like Warner)? Well both Beauty In Distortion and Land of The Lost had been individually floating around the bootleg circut for the last year (I been bumpin’ since late ’07) and were only officially released this month as a double-disc package, so perhaps it’s too late for this record to seize the industry though a potential sophmore effort (no news yet) could definitely spell a landmark breakthrough. Time will tell.
Also, on a slightly less theoretical note… Jack Davey herself (bar the androgynous name) is so sexy it actually hurts my face.
Beauty In Distortion Tracklist
01. Divisions Of Joy 02. Mr. Mister
03. Touch It
04. Private Parts 05. No More
06. Gangsta
07. Might As Well
08. Cowboys & Indians
09. Enterception (originally entitled ‘Beat (Tell You Goodbye)’
10. Mr. Mister (Remix)
Land of The Lost Tracklist
01 Hi’s & Lo’s
02 Just Because 03 Lil Big Heads (co-produced by ?uestlove of The Roots)
04 Red Light (produced by J-Dilla)
05 Hi Sun 06 Dirty Love
07 Slooow
08 Thick Interlude
09 sLAyer
10 Lalaland 11 Dancehall
12 Mr. Mister (Cock Out Remix)
13 Venus 2 Mars
14 Valley of Love
15 Let It Bleed
My stand-out tracks highlighted in Bold Red above and the following tracklists below.
01. Still The Baddest (Intro) 02. Beam Me Up 03. Caos
04. You & I
05. Entrapped
06. Fuss’N’Fight 07. Hit Me With Medication 08. 6am
09. Another Glass 10. Syntax Error
11. Phone Call
12. Work It Out
13. With You
14. I’m Out!!!
1. Conflict (This Is Your Brain On Drugs)
2. Fly Away With Me
3. The Things I Do 4. Overthought feat. Bilal Salaam
5. The Art Of You 6. Spies
7. Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness 8. Reach Down In Your Soul feat. Wes Felton
9. B-Side Love Affair
10. Would All The People From Compton Please Leave?
11. Star
01. Twice
02. Turn Left
03. No Love 04. Recommendation
05. Constant Suprises 06. Forever
07. After The Rain
08. Place To Belong 09. Stormy Weather
10. Test
11. Wink
12. Scribbled Paper
-G & D (Georgia Anne Muldrow & Dudley Perkins) – The Message Uni Versa [2007]
1. Ye Olde Skit
2. GodUnit
3. On One 4. One
5. Peace Of Mind
6. Time
7. Found
8. U 9. All 4 U
10. Ye Olde Skit Too
11. Good Mornin Amerikkka
12. P.I.F.O.T.P.H. 34
13. War Drums
14. Stomp, The
15. Poppa’s Song
16. MGD – (with M.E.D.) 17. Stronger
18. Ye Last Olde Skit
19. Message, The
20. Uncle Dudley’s Outro
I Bootlegged Your Mum 