SEPTEMBER 2023 ISSUE
A sneaky peek of just some of what is in the September 2023 issue – OUT NOW!
Corinne Bailey Rae
Corinne Bailey Rae stands before a group of journalists, PR and record label people in the basement bar of a Soho hotel, addressing the eager throng on the creation of her new album. It’s not something I’ve seen her do before; indeed, it’s not the kind of event I usually attend: tb-perfectly-h, playing and absorbing a new album is, in my opinion, best done via one’s own headphones, room speakers and car sound system, to find out where it properly fits into your everyday life. On this occasion, however, there is definitely a story worth telling.
Black Rainbows, relates Corinne of her first new collection of songs in seven years, arose out of an after-show meeting in 2017 with the Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates and a subsequent visit to his Stony Island Arts Bank in the city…
Samory I
When Samory I emerged back in 2017, his then producer Rory Gilligan described him as a singer who celebrates the black experience whilst “looking at the world through a ghetto youth’s eyes.” His Black Gold album caused a sensation that year, thanks to tracks like Rasta Nuh Gangster and a heartfelt rendition of Syl Johnson’s Is It Because I’m Black. Fast forward six years and this impression still holds, as anyone who’s heard recent singles like Wrath and Blood In The Streets can tell you.
Those two tracks, together with Crown, now form the centrepiece of his long-awaited sophomore album Strength, produced by Philip “Winta” James who Samory I calls “a genius” and with an approach to production that is “out of this world.” The overall feel is no longer so dark and brooding, as on its predecessor…
Marvin Gaye
Now that the anniversary album has become a thing – and by ‘thing’ I mean a useful marketing tool for artists and record labels alike – barely a month goes by when some alleged landmark recording isn’t celebrated with an expanded or otherwise revitalised edition. We’re less than a couple of years away from the 30th birthday of D’Angelo’s debut Brown Sugar, for example, and about the same distance from the 25th turn around the sun since Voodoo. Last year was the 25th since Baduizm. [How old does all that make you feel?] Happily, it’s truly a golden age for we seventies soul freaks. The period – especially 1970-75, when many of the greatest ever soul albums were put to tape – is now half a century ago and so the number of 50th anniversary reissues of some of soul’s finest releases is growing. And since many of Marvin Gaye’s best albums arrived during that time, the potential for being spoilt is huge…
The Sextones
“We have long admired many of the things Kelly has put out over the years with Monophonics, his solo project, and his other groups. Kelly’s knowledge of soul music and production is vast. He also has a great sensibility when it comes to production and songwriting, putting a song’s emotion first. When we had “choice paralysis” in the process of making Love Can’t Be Borrowed he was able to break us out of ruts and keep the creativity flowing, while always looking at the record from the ‘big picture’ perspective…”
