Ok so this is the first Future Flavours of this year and we start off the same way we mean to carry on-bloody brilliant talent.
A few of the people hyped up here have gone on to prove their crazy talent-Kwabs being one of them; please check out my interview with this soon to be global talent.
As some of you know who check out this feature I am working on a new music entertainment platform called Quality Control which is growing. We filmed in October and we have loads of content bursting across the viral world so please check it out. Stephanie Santiago the gorgeous London based singer who featured in Future Flavours absolutely nailed an emotive acoustic performance for a studio session with Quality Control definitely a talent to keep your eyes and ears on.
Further news with Quality Control is our live session on the 14 03 14 at Proud Camden and it will be a great event. We already have the great Tawiah confirmed so stay locked for the full info to get tickets for the live event. If you think you have the talent to be filmed for our show then please get in touch semper@qualitycontrolmusic.com and please follow us on @qualitylocated
Anyway Future Flavours brings some brilliant UK talent in the shape of the creative gem that is Femme, the infinite talent of Py, the easy listening jazz vibes of The Remedy before we get all loved up with stateside crooner Barsheem who brings the quintessential tenets of soul straight to the masses for Valentines-anyway let’s go in!
Femme est magnifique!
With her peroxide blond bob (currently) and her rather quirky self, Femme is the rather avant-garde multi-talented creative who totally hooked me when I heard her banging, bumping rambunctious pop single Fever Boy complete with a swagger fuelled opening rap and a retro looking video all courtesy of Femme’s creative mind. Fever Boy comes off an AA flex the other side being Heartbeat an equally brilliant pop enthused bit of niceness.
Femme actually dropped a little something for the masses last year called Educated in December but it by her own admission Fever Boy has ‘captured an audience’ and set the tongues of notables like Laurene Laverne and Annie Mac wagging in unbridled admiration for this London based artist who has no problem being deemed ‘pop’.
She is in essence the epitome of the current push/wave of artists who are making their names totally devoid of big label input. This independent route actually adds a real organic authenticity which is engaging.
Louise Bettinson aka Femme as such an artist is totally involved in every aspect of her burgeoning career; from producing her hooky numbers at her home studio, to creating treatments for her videos, to creating the artwork for her singles it is all Femme. Controlling- well yes of course because in this day and age of music you can do that but having spoken to Femme this is not some megalomaniac mission but rather it’s the joy of charting her journey and enjoying the process involved in that.
“I wanted to concentrate more on masculine beats particularly as a female producer and challenge the idea that girls in pop music don’t make their own beats.” She stated when I spoke to her (check out the interview): she is evidently pop without the kitsch, commercial without the sell out, catchy without a viral infection-(achoo).
She is certainly taking this whole affair global with a number 1 spot on the Brazilian I-tunes chart and countries like Japan loving her sound. With collabos already set and waiting and pushes for performances at the usual festival spots Femme is defo someone to keep an eye on.
Py is infinitely good.
Py is multi instrumentalist based in London who has already toured with Fenech Soler and gained a nod of approval from the man like Zane Lowe.
She has been a burning ember on the scene for 2013 with some great musical output that can only be classed as beautifully intense soulful come trip-hop /electro vibes. Cuts like Lungs produced by George Fitzgerald and Black Magic produced by Kadabrah have helped to launch this sublime vocalist on the underground circuit -both cuts were rotated in club land heavily.
A personal favourite from her back catalogue for me has to be Polyethers an intense dance/ trip-hop type number that just oozes high productive values, crisp ethereal vocals with punctuations of serene falsetto and a soaring soulful chorus-tidy.
2014 and the burning ember that is Py seems set to ignite everything around her with her latest vibe the sparkling Swimming Slow which retains elements of dance/electro with a definite influence of the soul genre without quite immersing itself in the genre.
http://soundcloud.com/pymusic/swimming-slow.
Swimming Slow can be pumped on full whack so you can disturb your elderly neighbour from their pureed lunch or indeed as I liked it on headphones where you can really experience the powerful lyrical textures Py brings. It’s a track that speaks words of love and the fear of embarking on a new relationship after going through what seems a traumatic break-up: ‘if I found it would it be the right thing?’, and ‘glue me back together again without the fear’. It’s a track that is honest and lays open some raw emotions from Py. The subject matter is of course not new but the beautiful simplicity of the lyrics is enough to immerse you in Py’s soulful world.
I cannot wait to see what she brings next-Py is infinitely good.
SWIMMING SLOW released via MTDL_RCRDS on the 10th March.
I need The Remedy now!
If you love live soul, jazz vibes then look no further than the totally excellent five piece group The Remedy.
Imagine if you will an underground exclusive basement club, a supremely cool crowd with huge afros, the latest exclusive kicks being worn, moderate amounts of bling on display and an appreciative crowd who have never watched X factor because it’s ‘whack’ while The Remedy play sweet music.
I truthfully have not got a lot of info on the band but who cares their music is more than enough info. Krissy Twigg takes the helm with that amazing voice that makes everything just fine backed by the exquisite musicality of the other four members where the sonorous saxophone serenades, great guitar riffs are riveting, the bass is bountiful, the tingling of the ivories is inspiring and drum patterns keep your feet tapping it’s an eargasmic blend and I could not get enough of it.
Their soundcloud details a London band with a sound that is not necessarily new but it is fresh because bands diving into this music are few are far between. There are two notable covers on their soundcloud; Stay The Same taken from Bonobo’s fourth album Black Sands (2010) and the cover of John Mayer’s I Don’t Trust Myself (With Lovin You) from his third album Continuum (2006)-both covers are given The Remedy oh so cool spin.
Of course they have their own material and look no further than their two eps simply called EP1 and EP2. Cuts to salivate over like you are one of the dogs from Pavlov’s experiments are numerous cuts that come to mind-The Bop a reggae infused number to For How Long which has a definite Jamarioquai vibe.
Now the question is can they become an outfit that becomes more than potentials and really reach a wider audience? It of course depends where they want to take this whole thing but of course they can-what a great remedy.
It’s A Love Thing with Barsheem.
Ok last up we jet over to the states New York Brooklyn to be exact for some quintessential, traditional and totally beautiful soul from a singer, songwriter and producer Barsheem. By the way he is also an actor and was in the massive hit Dreamgirls (2006) -some people just have it all hey-jealous I am?
I found out about this artist on one of my many twitter forays you know the score lying in bed just scrolling through people’s messages when I saw him adverting some of his music. I checked it out and I was instantly transported into a world where I imagined a concert with Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding and Luther Vandross alive on stage while Maxwell, Sade and Donnell Jones jammed in the wings waiting to come on the stage.
Barsheem by his own admission has spent two years of his life lovingly given everything to his album What Is It To Be Major due for release on Valentine’s Day and indeed it shows. Nice production and telling song writing takes you nicely into this body of work which has definite punctuations of the old skool through this 14 track niceness-indeed babies will be made from this album.
Classy cuts from the album are numerous and there is a nice cover of the classic by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell if This World Was Mine (1967) which I think Barsheem does as a mark of respect to two giants of the soul era particularly Marvin Gaye. This mark of respect did not go unnoticed by Marvin Gaye’s family who invited him down to sing at the Marvin Gaye 74th annual celebration last year.
In the face of the push for edgy music and slightly darker sounds and subject matter (which I absolutely love) Barsheem’s music allows us to imagine a place where love is, pure, unmitigated and returned-returned love is important otherwise you step into the realms of a stalker and no one likes a stalker in the real world or cyber world-‘no I don’t like you’.
Jazz FM radio and Blues and Soul magazine (taste makers for soul) have already got onto Barsheem so if you are a lover of the more traditional soul vibes well this is a brilliant album for the beginning of 2014.
