Browsing Tag

Motown

Caleya Black – Stay with Me: A Homecoming for the Soul

Posted on 30 November 2024

Love may be a hard emotion to put into words, but when Caleya Black weaved it into her organically seraphic single, Stay with Me, those four little words transformed into a universal language. The old-school soul instrumentals, complete with staccato guitars carving the contours of delicious groove pockets, cradle the singer-songwriter’s arcanely transcendent vocal register. Through her harmonies, the classic tones she touches transform into a timeless tonality, proving that soul music doesn’t need reinvention to feel relevant.

Black’s artistry harks back to an era when soul ruled the airwaves, as Urban Magazine noted about her breakout single Our Song. The Motown-inspired artist from New Jersey, steeped in gospel roots, knows how to craft music that defies trends. Her debut EP, Still Loves, and standout tracks like Go There and Love Come Down, have cemented her reputation as an artist who respects the legacy of soul while asserting her place within it.

In Stay with Me, the restraint in the instrumentation highlights Black’s command over her vocal expression. Every note feels deliberate, every harmony meticulously placed to pull listeners into the raw honesty of the lyrics. This is the kind of track that doesn’t demand attention but earns it with its authenticity, proving Caleya Black doesn’t just make soul music—she embodies it.

Stay with Me is now available to stream on all major platforms, including SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Keith Rayburn – Shine On: Guitar Strings as Gospel

Posted on 19 September 2024

For his latest eagerly anticipated release, Shine On, Keith Rayburn rendered funk-laden rock into smoky, Motown-esque soul intersected with bluesy grooves to offer conjurings of catharsis so intense the single borders on sonically sacred.

Each progression plunges the listener deeper into a hazy, irresistibly immersive soundscape that echoes the nostalgic aura of The Doors as his guitars speak gospel in chorus with the lyrics which attest to how dimming your light is never the answer when the illumination of resilience is an option.

Rayburn is well on his way to riffing his way into the rock pantheon with his peerlessly cultivated sonic signature that will scribe its way through your synapses long after the outro of the sublimity-soaked sanctuary of a single which is easily one of the most sincere feel-good releases you’ll hear all year.

With tens of thousands of monthly Spotify listeners from around the globe behind him and his versatile musicianship, Rayburn is well on his way to reaching the acclaim his superlative song crafting deserves. Make his ear for a melody your new aural remedy.

Shine On arrived on the airwaves on September 4th; stream the single on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Stanford Family Band – On My Holiday: A Riotously Sunlit Escapade Through the Intersections of Indie, Garage Rock, and Motown

Posted on 13 March 2024

The Stanford Family Band, following their debut ‘Love Me A Bit‘, have returned with ‘On My Holiday‘, a single that radiates with the warmth of a supernova. This track, a part of their upcoming 6-track EP ‘For Your Listening Pleasure’, is a vibrant testament to the Brighton-based band’s endlessly euphoric sonic identity.

From the first note, ‘On My Holiday’ is an immersion in a riotously colourful explosion of kaleidoscopic fervency. The vintage production, reminiscent of Ray Charles’ ‘Mess Around’, is a masterful blend of bluesy piano grooves and Beach Boys-esque harmonies. The trailblazers could never be as pedestrian as solely nodding to the past; with this release, they reimagined the aural ecstasy of a bygone era, tailored for today’s indie and garage rock enthusiasts.

Frontman Elliot Stanford’s captivating lead vocals, coupled with the band’s commitment to complex four-part harmonies and memorable melodic hooks resulted in a quirky upbeat odyssey through a bittersweet vignette, which affirmed that in the death of winter, the sun is just around the corner.

Elliot’s approach to songwriting, as he describes, is an exercise in balancing musical joy with lyrical melancholy, a juxtaposition reminiscent of the Beach Boys circa 1965. ‘On My Holiday’ is the embodiment of this philosophy, musically exuberant yet lyrically introspective.

On My Holiday was released via Goo Records on February 27th and is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Alicia Michilli revived the soul of Detroit Motown in her latest single, Full Moon

Posted on 10 November 2022

With a voice that saw her go far on America’s Got Talent, a timeless lyrical style, and a compelling spin on soul, America should be upholding the Detroit-based Alicia Michilli as a national treasure.

Her latest single, Full Moon, eases you into the smooth, smoky late-night atmosphere where perpetual love lights up the twilight. Her influence of Detroit Motown sounds is easily legible in the consoling timbre of the release that serenades you from the first vocal note. For non-believers in true love, you only need to tap into the demure soul of this caressively sincere release, which celebrates the unconditional love we all yearn for.

So far in her career, Alicia Michilli has opened for Andra Day, Nelly and her long-time hero, Keb’ Mo’, and provided background vocals for Taj Mahal and Keb’ Mo’ during their TaiMo tour. Although, based on Full Moon, she always deserves to be on front and centre stage.

Full Moon is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Get your summer soul-fix with the electronica producer, Nathan Maurice’s baby I need your love

Posted on 14 June 2022

Nathan Maurice lay down a tapestry of old-school soul in his latest single, baby I need (your love). The vibe-driven mix starts with the sample of archaic soul vocals before building a buzzing summer anthem, slickened with lush reverb, vibrant beats, and crescendos you would understand if your heart stopped for.

When his classical work isn’t on repeat on Classical FM, the Birmingham, UK-based composer and producer is featured on Radio 1 with his electronic project, Lorenz System. If that doesn’t tell you all that you need to know about Maurice’s luminary presence in the electronica world, I’ll assume you are past the point of comprehension.

Hear baby I need your love for yourselves via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

My Honey: Salyse roars delightfully on inspiring debut track ‘Babygirl’

Posted on 27 April 2021

When true role models are so hard to find these days, Salyse shows the ladies that they need to back themselves into following their dreams on ‘Babygirl‘.

Simone Alyse Senibaldi aka Salyse, is an exciting Everett, Boston-born, Motown and Disco-inspired, musical theater-trained indie RnB/Soul singer-songwriter based in Atlanta, Georgia.

She has a clear vest for life, genuinely kind heart and loves and making that soulful music, which is made with true intentions to help others and intended to make everyone happy no matter what they are going through personally.

“Babygirl” is about loving, embracing, and celebrating every part of yourself.” – Salyse

Her voice reach far into your mind, as she takes you to a place that you have needed to be for a while. The world is a harsh place, with so much unnecessary hatred and divisiveness — but in-between those dingy alleys — there is a way to stay happy and this song represents that. Being kind to yourself and trying to be better each day — no matter your flaws — is the only path you need to take, to find that true road of enlightenment.

‘Babygirl‘ from the fast-emerging Atlanta singer-songwriter and wonderfully artistic creative Salyse, leads us into this sweet story about knowing what you what, being true to yourself and going for your goals, no matter how hard they seem currently. This is the type of message that needs to be heard far and wide, as it is awe-inspiring and brings you a warm feeling inside.

Hear the lovely audio on YouTube and follow her social moves on IG.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

Bluebass brings the feel-good factor with their funk-riddled track, ‘Never Give Up on Your Dreams’

Posted on 13 April 2021

Blackpool-based singer-songwriter and producer Bluebass fed the influence of his hometown into his latest feel-good track, ‘Never Give Up on Your Dreams’. Blackpool isn’t all illuminations and rabid hen parties; it also has an ever-lasting tie to the Northern Soul and Jazz Funk scene which rose from the town’s working-class roots.

With their latest release, Bluebass embraced the old school before contorting familiar grooves into catchy contemporary rhythms that would go down a storm on a dancefloor. Their upraising mix of RnB, pop, funk and soul pulls together to offer all of the aural euphoria that you could ask for.

Never Give Up on Your Dreams is now available to stream via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

About ‘Last Night’ – Beatnik drop us some deep cut soulful grooves.

Posted on 10 April 2021

There’s an immediate familiarity around Beatnik to anyone who’s ever whiled away their entire teenage school holidays playing the old coin-op road-race game ‘OutRun’ over and over, or spent, say, 29 hours straight watching 70’s cop-show re-runs on Paramount. Not that we’ve done either, of course. Heaven forbid. But it’s exactly that sort of jazzy, funky, 70’s disco-tinged soulful chill that leaps out of the speakers when hitting ‘play’ on ‘Last Night’; a deep-groove old-school funk-pop dance track, all wandering bass, off-beat drum fills, syncopated Nile Rodgers-style guitar chords, Rhodes piano, and stabs of perfect, jazzy brass, all underlying keyboard/vocalist Peter LaBarge’s awesome soulful vocal delivery.

It’s an absolute killer of a track, a bouncy, beach-and-palm-tree infused love letter to South Florida wrapped up in Acid Jazz Brand New Heavies Chic-meets-Jamiroquai catchiness; we’ve been humming the chorus refrain from ‘Last Night’ all day since first listening to the track, and – given the amount of music we get to review – there doesn’t get much higher praise than that.

‘Last Night’ is taken from Beatnik’s ‘Night Shift’ EP, due for release on April 1st. You can pre-save ‘Night Shift’ through BandCamp now, listen to ‘Last Night’ on Spotify, and follow Beatnik on Instagram.

Review by Alex Holmes

Enjoy a perfect morning with Mo Safren and his Motown Pop ballad ‘Bagels and Coffee’

Posted on 6 March 2021

With vocals as evocative as Tom Odell’s and a charisma which captivates you just as much as his artfully powerful sound, it’s impossible to imagine a dull future for US singer-songwriter and performer, Mo Safren.

The perfect introduction to their constraint-less sound is ‘Bagels and Coffee’; the soulfully slick piano pop ballad carries all of the accessibility of a mainstream pop track and all of the improvised unpredictability of jazz. Attempting to affix genres to this powerfully progressive single would be an act of futility, but you will be able to note Safren’s dynamic array of influences which includes everyone from Chopin to Sinatra.

Bagels and Coffee is one of those phenomenally rare singles which you feel like you could listen to a thousand times and still not have picked out the beauty in every subversive curveball.

The official music video to Bagels and Coffee is available to stream via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Babybrutha gave us a guide to aural salvation in their funk-driven soul-rock track ‘Black Vinyl’

Posted on 5 March 2021

Aural salvation-seekers with a penchant for funk-driven soul-rock will definitely want to delve into the latest release ‘Black Vinyl’, by Chicago-based fourpiece, Babybrutha.

Black Vinyl exhibits Babybrutha not just as dexterous artists, but as eccentric alchemists of soul-stroking high vibes; you’ll feel existentially lighter before the chorus hits. With Hendrix-style solos, vocals from Tim Lee which prove that his soul could sate the grim reaper for a decade and deep Motown grooves, it’s impossible to entertain any notion of apathy when the track is running through.

You can check out the official video to Black Vinyl by heading over to YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast