Thursday 21 February 2013

adriana evans - swimming

back when i was following certain blogs religiously i heard adriana evans' "remember the love" being highlighted on one of them as a "hey, remember this track?" entry. basically what i do on a regular with this blog but i spend more time talking about other things than the song at hand. i remember really liking the track and listened to it quite a bit. what followed was that i went on the look for the album that had come out a few years prior but found her first album from 1997 instead.

it was done with rapper & producer jonathan scott aka dred scott who featured her on his track "check the vibe" released four years prior. the name of the game is of course r&b but in particular hiphop-soul or neo-soul. basically the idea of 70's and 80's soul music done with hiphop production and aestethics, i want to say 60's and i think a lot of the key players in mind want to say that as well but who are you fooling.

on most of the cuts from the album there was all sorts of live instrumentation and this included the three singles from the album. my interpretation is that some or most of them wasn't just for the r&b and hip-hip but for the contemporary crowd. then you hade songs like "hey brother", "love me", "in the sun" and the track at question "swimming" which was made from strictly from scott's mpc. i should note that third single "seein' is believing" was done with samples as a base but it also uses live instrumentation.

"swimming" is also my favourite song from the album and i think it's because it sounds a smidge like future single "remember the love". the rhytmic backdrop is the "outside love" break, which is most associated with pete rock as he's used it countless times, and a moody blend of a vibraphone-noodling and a guitar lick. love it especially when they drop off and come back in between the first chorus and the second verse. evans does her best crooning and the layering of the harmonies give of a nice vibe. like all good soul music should be sending out.

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