Laura Mvula is a fantastic new singer from Birmingham. She's signed to RCA and I'm priveliged enough to have heard a preview of her album, Sing To The Moon, which is awesome and out on March 4th 2013. There's hints of Nina Simone and Amy Winehouse in her voice and she's got that elegantly understated cool edge to just about everything she does. Look out for an album review coming your way very soon. But for now check out these videos- the first is the infectious 'Green Garden'...
The second video is for the stunning song, 'She'...
Presenter Ryan Hall is in London as part of a two part special, garnering opinions towards class and race, with some quite surprising results. He speaks to some people who don't encounter or witness any racism while others believe racial discrimination is not obvious but the prejudice which fuels it still exists. The film shows some who believe that America has more evolved racial attitudes than Europe and some who believe class is England's main obstacle. What do you think? Check it out and leave a comment in the c-section.
I know we've probably all seen it numerous times but that doesn't make this performance any less great! This 2011 BRITS performance of the mesmerising, heartbreaking 'Someone Like You' was seminal. It was so simple and honest, at that moment Adele captivated the hearts of the nation and then, the world. And I don't think there has been a moment like this at an award ceremony since.
Her record breaking album, 21 has gone on to become the best selling album of our time- surpassing Michael Jackson's Thriller in some territories. I cant help but think this beautiful, emotional, performance had a lot to do with that.
'Dead of Night Express' is a song taken from Stephen Poliakoff's BBC 2 drama Dancing on the Edge about a black jazz band striving for success in 1930s London. It stars John Goodman, Matthew Goode, and Chiwetel Ejiofor- as Louis Lester- the band leader. 'The Dead of Night Express' is the song that catapults the band to new heights and has them mixing with the British aristocracy. It's a brilliant big band jazz number that has been released on Decca records. The band is made up of real musicians and as well as the vocal talents of the actresses Angela Coulby and Wunmi Mosaku. I'd love the band to actually do a set somewhere like Ronnie Scots- it would be totally great! Check out the video.
South London Singer,
Josh Osho released the new video for his track, 'Even in War'. The song is
one of the stand-out tracks from The John
Doe EP; his impressive collection of
seven songs covering themes of identity, love, loss and legacy.
The former MOBO Tour artist recruited a small
team of creative individuals to produce the striking video. It is an inspired
fusion of animation and 3D motion graphics that provides a stirring visual
accompaniment to the poignant song.
Fresh from his win for Best Rap Album at last night's Grammy Awards, Drake released the video for his forthcoming single, Started From The Bottom. The visual is a tongue-in-cheek take on the typical zero to hero story. Directed by Director X and C. Papi , the video shows a more fun side of Drake that was mostly missing from 2011's Take Care. The scenes in the supermarket are hilarious, almost channelling oddball comedies like SuperBad. Nice to see a rapper who has the guts to poke fun at himself. Drake also announced over the weekend that his third studio album due out later this year, will be called Nothing Was The Same. Looking forward to that, but until then, here's Started From The Bottom- enjoy!
UK songstress Julie Iwehta hails from London. She is well known on London's urban event scene and has performed at The Jazz Cafe. There's something that screams British Soul about her powerful yet warm vocals. Her mixtape, And So It Beginswas released late last year. It comprises R&B and Soulful house music with honest heart felt lyrics, it also features a rap from fellow new talent, Lioness on the track, Say My Name. Have a listen here!
Brandy made a welcome return to the charts last year with her album Two Eleven, which proved popular with fans and critics a like. It had the likes of India Arie singing Brandy's praises (literally). Arie and Solange Knowles have both credited Brandy with setting a standard for a specific style of singing that artists still copy today. In the industry there is such a thing as a "Brandy Run", and her 2004 Afrodisiac album is a great collection of songs that showcase Brandy's unique voice wonderfully. Go-to music man, Timberland produced the majority of the album but Afrodisiac was also responsible for introducing a certain Mr Kanye West to the mainstream. He produced a few tracks on the album and featured on Talk About Our Love. This was the album's stand out hit. Rapper T.I also pops up on the song Where You Wanna Be. This was an eclectic sounding album with interesting sampling of Indie-alternative and Rock bands, such as Coldplay and Iron Maiden. Brandy has also mentioned that the late R&B singer, Aaliyah was a huge inspiration for the album, both musically and lyrically. Brandy recevied a Grammy nomination for Afrodisiac and it's easy to see why: it's a great album that properly reacquainted fans with everything they always loved about Brandy.
Wiley brings us the video for his next single Reload which is due out on February 24th. It's another party banger. Chip adds extra energy to the track and shows that he has matured as an artist while up and coming singer, Ms D's kooky vocals give the track an addictive, euphoric edge. Reload is taken from Wiley's forthcoming album, Ascent, which comes out in March and features his previous hits Heatwave and Can You Hear Me? Check out the video!
Pras Michel, Wyclef Jean and Lauryn Hill were The Fugees. A force to be reckoned with back in the mid 90's and watching this performance, it's easy to see why! The trio from New York via Haiti, were (and still are) the ultimate hip hop band. They were able to crossover into the mainstream and become globally successful without loosing integrity. This performance is from The BBC 2 show Later With Jools Holland from 1996. Just look at Lauryn Hill! Stunning voice, Stunning performance! What a classic!
Introducing LIVE GEMS! This is going to be a new segment on Creative Juice where I post videos of some of my favourite live performances from some of my favourite artists. I think the best way to discover a great new artist or even a great old artist is through live performance: It's so much more immediate and exciting, it gives a song a different energy- a new feel. I will be bringing you performances from a whole range of genres and I really hope you enjoy what you hear!
Explosions is just a beautiful song from Ellie Goulding's beautiful sophomore album Halcyon released in October last year.There is something so epic and haunting about this song, you can just listen over and over, it's completely hypnotising. The video is snippets of her various performances of the song cut together with tour moments. It includes clips of her stunning performance of the song at the Troubadour in Los Angeles back in November. At first I was disappointed with the video because the song is so emotive I wanted to see what the visual representation would look like. But then I thought It was actually a nice thing; it's like Ellie leaves it up to you to listen to the song and create your own pictures.
UK singer Paul Raj recently released his debut 5-track EP Pandora's Box. I first heard him live last year at music and poetry showcase, Vocals and Verses. A graduate of the prestigious BRITs School, Raj's music is a return to classic piano-led R&B in the tradition of artists like Babyface and Brian McKnight. So if mellow, romantic R&B is your thing then Paul Raj is a great new talent to look out for.
Earlier this week Drake announced that a new single was on the way and here it is Started From The Bottom is the kind of mellowHip Hop track, that Drake does so well. He reflects on his journey to carve a rap career.It comes after the release of his throw- caution- to- the- wind, party tracks like The Motto, off 2011's Take Care. But Started From The Bottom is a song that puts the party antics to one side and instead circles back to how it all started. It's like Drake's effort to keep himself grounded; to remind himself of the hustle and not just the glory of his success. The track is a great way to kick start the buzz for album number three.
