KREPT & KONAN

Date: July 10, 2020 Category:

FEBRUARY 2025 ISSUE

 

A sneaky peek of just some of what is in the February 2025 issue – OUT NOW!

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ETERNAL

Contrary to belief in some quarters, changes in personnel within music groups aren’t actually an unusual thing. In fact, line-ups that don’t change over time are the anomaly. In the end, ambitions, priorities and perspectives can become misaligned, and people want different things out of life. But ultimately, some will go through more drama than others.
On a crisp winter’s day in central London, I’m meeting up with a group whose evolution has been well documented, and which continues to shape them many years later. Ring the alarm! Eternal are back on the block.
Catching up with the 2025 version of the group is a little bit like stepping into a time machine. This was an outfit who hit the heights in the ’90s, releasing four albums and landing a UK number one with their BeBe Winans collaboration, I Wanna Be. Their very first single, Stay, was a huge international hit, straight out of the box. They toured the world at a time when R&B groups from the UK weren’t even getting radio airtime, let alone releasing actual LPs…

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LUTHER VANDROSS

Recently, I went to see Simon Cartwright/Mark Farrelly’s two-hander, Howerd’s End, a stage-play about the comedian Frankie Howerd and his decades-long secret life-partner, Dennis Heymer. Howerd met Heymer in the 1950s, when homosexuality was, in the UK, still a criminal offence, so it’s understandable that the couple kept their life together a secret, not only in the beginning but, bearing in mind the slow pace of change in British social attitudes, for a long time afterwards. [The play, amongst other things, examines the strain that the extended subterfuge put on their relationship – a life together that endured until the day Frankie died.] For as much as we easily assume to be more enlightened in these allegedly ‘woke’ times, back at the tail-end of the 20thcentury, people were generally not nearly so accommodating of difference: supposedly gay vicars were routinely ‘outed’ by the Sunday tabloids and in my neck of the Yorkshire woods an accusation of homosexuality was generally seen and heard as a common insult.
So, it’s ironic that Luther: Never Too Much, a documentary about the great crossover soulman’s life and music, should hit both cinemas and streams around the same time, and once again set us pondering – amongst other matters – about Luther Vandross’s private life. How much of it will an American film deign to reveal or even discuss in what’s supposed to be a documentary of his life and music?

 

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AVISHAI COHEN

Some recording studios enjoy legend status. Think Abbey Road, McLemore Avenue, Electric Lady, Compass Point. These are the ones that are known to music lovers, but several others have a special place in the heart of music makers. Israeli bassist Avishai Cohen found his sweet spot in Gothenburg, Sweden. It is called Nilento.
“I fell in love with the whole vibe at that studio,” he says. “That comes from the people… and it was the engineer Lars Nilsson – his wife and assistant – they all made the vibe. That’s a big thing… as well as the space, obviously, and the quality of the sound.
“I need the engineer to be good at what he does, and I do what I do. Then the magic is captured when we are all immersed in the music beyond the technical stuff. It’s great because then you have another partner… almost like another part of the band. It’s the best of both worlds. I stayed there for most of my career, with the exception of Paris and New York a few times. But most of my albums were recorded there.”
Brightlight, Cohen’s latest offering, is no exception to the rule…

 

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KREPT & KONAN

British rap duo Krept & Konan have a new album out, Young Kingz II, that has been described as “a bold return to the DIY spirit that originally launched their career,” and “a deep, reflective retelling of the life-defining moments” heard on their original Young Kingz Mixtape. Released independently on their Play Dirty label and recorded largely in Jamaica, it’s their first self-released album in over a decade, and features artists from across the musical spectrum. Rising Nigerian Afrobeats star Oxlade is on there – also Matt Lansky, UK rap staples Chip, Potter Payper, Youngs Teflon and Ghetts, Tyler Daley from Children of Zeus and Jamaican deejays Sizzla and Popcaan.
Taking its place among these names is the ghost of Konan’s father, the late reggae singer Delroy Wilson. Renowned as Jamaica’s first-ever child star, he was hailed as the island’s answer to Marvin Gaye because of his understated, soulful voice, which graced three decades of Jamaican musical history, from ska and rocksteady to reggae. His biggest hits – and there are plenty of them – include classics such as Better Must Come, Cool Operator, Rain From The Skies, Keep On Running, Dancing Mood, Just Say Who, I’m Not A King and Trying To Conquer Me. Also, Delroy has the honour of being among the very few artists to sing a Bob Marley cover – I’m Still Waiting – that many believe surpassed the original.  

 

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