Soul Strutter: April 2024

Tuesday 30 April 2024

Amelia Rose & Paul Grant [2024] Chasing [Self Released]

A new sped up version of "Chasing" by Amelia Rose & Paul Grant has been released today which reminded us that we've had it languishing in one of our pending playlists since the beginning of the month so it's prompted us to post both versions now.

London's Amelia Rose Dyson has featured here numerous times and Californian producer/guitarist Paul Grant a couple, first with his "Forward" EP (Jun '23) from which "U" feat. Dallas' Brayla Cook picked up some airplay.

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Amelia Rose

Paul Grant

Details

Rating:	8.2
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Neo Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Self Released
Cat No:	None
Date:	30/04/2024 (02/04/2024)
Key/BPM:	11A/104 / 10A/91
Price:	£1.79

Claire Davis [2024] - Intuition / Get It Right [LRK Records]

Officially released today is the 7" vinyl pairing of two songs from Claire Davis' debut album "Get It Right" (21 Apr '23), the title track and the single "Intuition".

It was available on pre-order from LRK Records' Bandcamp store but now appears to be sold out so if you need this on vinyl then contact your preferred vinyl dealer who may still have stock. If you haven't already bagged it digitally then it is available digitally on Bandcamp.

UPDATE SimplySoul has them in stock now.

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Details

Rating:	8.5
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	New Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	7" Vinyl / Digital
Label:	Self Released
Cat No:	None
Date:	30/04/2024
Key/BPM:	3B/111 / 12A/95
Price:	£13 / £1

Christian de Mesones [2024] - You Only Live Twice [That 555 Lyfe] (Full Album)

Brooklyn, NYC, born Christian “Big New York” de Mesones is a seasoned bassist, composer and bandleader from DMV (the Washington, DC area). He's been playing bass for over 40 years graduating from the Bass Institute of Technology (Now the Musician’s Institute) in Hollywood, CA.

He began as a New York City cabbie and heavy metal bassist and embroiled in a word of sex and drugs and rock and roll until he decided to turn his life around relocating to Virginia and converting to jazz funk. He describes his music as 'smooth grooves and funky soul with a Latin flair'.

His debut album "They Call Me Big New York" arrived in March 2020 just as Covid lockdown came into force which somewhat limited his ability to promote the album.

A year later he released a sultry Latin-tinged cut titled "Hispanica" which a UK DJ sent to Grammy-winning keyboardist Bob James who agreed to play piano on the track. It's included on his sophomore album "You Only Live Twice" released on 12 April. On the same day the choice cut "Stay (Big New York Mix)" feat. Nes (Vanessa) Powers, the only vocal song, was released as a single.

Credit to Roger Soulsorts Williams for highlighting this one to us which passed us by over our Easter break.

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Details

Rating:	8
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Soul Jazz
Format:	Album
Media:	Digital
Label:	That 55 Lyfe
Cat No:	None
Date:	12/04/2024
Price:	£7.99

Callas Dozier [2024] - Heart Gets In The Way [Self Released]

Atlanta's Callas Dozier follows her excellent, and well received, debut single "Possibility" in Feb with her second "Heart Gets In The Way". This one's a more downtempo smooth soul ballad.

We're still unable to find much information about Callas save that she studied Mechanical Engineering at Georgia State University but, on the basis of her first two recordings, we're sure we'll be hearing more about her.

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Details

Rating:	8.5
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	New Soul
Format:	Single
Media:	Digital
Label:	Self Released
Cat No:	None
Date:	25/04/2024
Key/BPM:	10B/65
Price:	£1

Seafood Sam [2024] - Standing on Giant Shoulders [drink sum wtr] (Full Album)

An album recommended to us comes from Long Beach, CA, rapper named Seafood Sam titled "Standing on Giant Shoulders". Curiously, we came across one of the tracks "Attack Of The Dreadlock" a couple of weeks ago as it came up on our Spotify Release Radar (we noted that it included Rae Khalil who's last solo single, "Is It Worth It", was our SoulStrutter Selection of the Week) but we weren't too sure about it and didn't explore the album further.

Seafood Sam debuted in 2018 with an EP "Du-rag Dreams" and followed it in 2019 with an album "Dior Velour".

He blends 70s soul and hip-hop and whilst many tracks contain rap it is the acceptable spoken word / rhythmic and sympathetic kind and not the angry ranting kind.

The tracks highlighted to us, in order that they feature in track listing, are "Can't Take The Hood To Heaven", "Lynn's Lullaby", "Brownskin Cinnamon" and "When I Met Rose" and we concur with those choices.

Seafood Sam prefers to keep his true identity secret but we suspect he's Bryan E Ramsey Jr. from writing credits and the first track on his debut EP is called "Ramsey".

Thanks to by Phil Ward for bringing this album to our attention.

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Details

Rating:	8.3
Explicit:	N
Genre/Style:	Neo Soul / Hip-hop
Format:	Album
Media:	Digital
Label:	drink sum wtr
Cat No:	None
Date:	19/04/2024
Price:	£9.99