Ok it has been a little minute since I dropped the last Future Flavours but I have been mad busy with a new project-a music program called Quality Control that I have helped produce. It’s a journey through music that takes your emotional spectrum, grabs it and broadens it. Join the Quality Man on this journey of discovery-it’s a music program that baulks at the norm so catch on and please send your music to talent@qualitycontrolmusic.com we are looking for fresh talent for the next day of filming we have three places left to fill where an artist gets the chance to have visuals to some of their tracks and of course they get EXPOSURE cannot under estimate that! In the meantime check the trailer for the show.
Also check out the phenomenal BGR and vote for her as the best up and coming femcee at the Hip-Hop Nation Award Ceremony poll.pollcode.com/79744
Anyway there’s some ultra brilliant talent to drop on your collective cerebral cortex as we flow with the effortless grace of a condor on an updraft. Future flavours will take you soaring into a place-actually ok enough is enough I know-let’s go in!
Louise Golbey
Got to say a big sorry to this lady because I said I would feature her a while back but I got caught up but this has no bearing on this lady’s immense talent. If I said I liked this lady it would be like saying that Arsenal’s fans are happy money has been spent-it would be an under statement.
No I really like this lady who is a soulful vocalist who has smidgens of the Amy Winehouse about her but rather than delving into that old skool soul this is soul with a different edge. The track that has recently been released is Up To Me which has a definite soul mixed with a banging hip-hop beat that I really like. You do get the tastes of the old skool I think I can hear a Wurlitzer sound could be wrong but essentially it is a soul sound for now that just stokes your fires-I am sooo hot!
She is a singer song writer a great combo so you can be guaranteed that she is bringing her own sound and individualism to each and every track.
Check her on this different vibe which is a whole lot funkier and shows sassy Louise. Really like this vibe but it still carries the Louise Golbey seal of great vocals-get your groove on MANNN!
In terms of her musical CV well it’s bursting at the seams from playing Glastonbury and the Isle of Wight Festival to working for Example and supporting names like Lianna Havas, old school gods like George Benson and Alexander O’Niell (If You Were Here Tonight in 1985 what a tune!). Louise is really destined for big things. She is working with one Aamir Yaquib who worked on the recent album from Rihanna so the pedigree is great can’t wait for the new material.
In the meantime check her supporting the Stylistics at the 02 arena in November.
Blizzard-Causing a storm.
Its simple Blizzard originally from Manchester is a creative polymath who has been steadily showing why he is certainly a big name to watch out for. He’s a multi-instrumentalist able to play the drums and the piano, he’s producer he actually was the man pushing the buttons of the track Soundbwoy Killer which Wiley proceeded to tear up and of course he is a rapper who has become known for his witty creative lines.
He has gained support from some big names and publications-Charlie Sloth had him in for a Fire In da Booth, SBTV featured him and he was named one to watch for 2013-and all this is just the tip.
So if he has been doing stuff already why is he getting highlighted now?
Well Blizzard is due to drop his latest EP called Testing The Water and having checked out the title track, it is safe to say it’s off the chain and I think this maybe the EP that sets things really alight for this guy.
The track, Testing The Water is an ambient hip-hop flex produced by Klimeks and Blizzard positively goes in on it like a dentist doing a root canal without giving you any pain. I love it as Blizzard bars constructing a story while that dark ambient sound engages and enthralls. I kid you not when I say that Drake would be love the vibe-while Drake may not necessarily be the best lyricist I do love the energy on his tracks and there is something in Testing the Water that is reminiscent of that.
https://soundcloud.com/iamblizzard/testing-the-water
This track is indeed a great precursor to the EP which will be dropping before the end of the year so let’s see what he brings-Blizzard causing a storm!
Stephanie Santiago-Hot Hot
Well well Stephanie Santiago I cannot lie music aside I am a little smitten by this Colombian beauty- words like ‘sultry’ ‘smouldering’ ‘sexy’ are cheesy clichés used to describe those of a Latin background so I will not use them I will just say she is FIT.
What’s this go to do with music-nothing at all!
Anyway music-well her music is gorgeous (there was actually a link) and it leaves you in no doubt that she is a brilliant singer songwriter that has the absolute style and class to really hit mainstream without loosing any of that raw, magical underground appeal that she has. Of course getting signed to a label can sometimes be the nail in the coffin to that raw pure creativity so if/when she does get signed to a major and they try and change her I say Stephanie “noooooo don’t let them do it!’.
She has written for the likes of Ill Blu and Tinchy Stryder but of course we need to see her own material. She obviously has music out there so check her sound cloud which has some brilliant guitar driven numbers that are the ticket. One of my personal favorites is a track called No Busquet a track she sings in Spanish-whatever she is saying it is powerful and I love the moments where the track hits a crescendo with that bustling chorus and hook nice!
Ok so it will be great to see what she has coming up next but in the meantime Santiago is Hot Hot oh sooooo damn Hot-the music that is!
Little Simz is BIG
At 19 Little Simz has already had a great many people talking about her as one of the hottest female rapping prospects coming out of the UK-also check out an artists called BGR incidentally.
She’s actress as well but here we are checking her in her rapping mode and she does drop it. She has already been building her pedigree with support slots for artists like Estelle and a feature on the film Leave to Remain.
While we have not been inundated with femcees from the UK we have had emcees who have the flow to boot-Lady Leshurr, Nolay are just two of the names I could mention but truth is that none recently have had a coup as big as being able to release their music on a huge artist’s label.
Well for Simz who releases her mix-tape Black Canvas that is exactly what has happened she has released it on Jigga’s label Live and Times a massive bit of kudos me thinks-(if there is a femcee who has recently had something as big holla).
I can see why it was released on his label because Simz does hip-hop straight and any grime influence is not apparent-this does not mean she has not been influenced by grime but sure facts her music is hip-hop and me love it. True I think it leans heavily towards that US style of underground hip-hop and the UK vibe in some respects is missing but that is due I expect to the influences of the label and of course the collaborations.
The mix-tape employs the services of the type of hip-hop talent who gain their integrity not from commercial success but rather from underground love. Melo-X (who featured in Flavour mag) on Rich Man smacks it up, then you have the input of Josh Acre and Chuck 20 on 3000x which is guaranteed to stoke up your hip-hop fires.
For someone who is very young she does drop a really quite mature offering full of interesting skits, big banging beats and smooth bars of the story telling type rather than the braggadocious type.
Simz is defo creating beautiful verbal canvasses.
Fallows-Liars and Kings
Ok so we go from hip-hop to the totally other extreme with some indie Celtic folk music from a new-ish group called Fallows.
Fallows actually released their first body of work which was positively received in 2012 with Face the Wolves. So in 2013 they push to drop their second body of work the grandly names Liars and Kings their first since taking on the drumming excellence of Ciaran Cokerry making them a quintet.
I do not know why but the album name conjures up images of a snowy winter day where a lone but large hut is in a forest. Inside there is a huge wood fire cracking away while a throng of people are gathered around telling tales, singing, dancing and generally being merry with music the added fuel of this joy.
In truth that image translates into their music; Liars and Kings is full of rich warm melodies that are beautifully and emotively transmitted by the lead singer Darby, with comforting sounds like the crack of a open fire that come from the brilliant fiddle, guitar and piano play. Tracks like Run Like a Dog, Caste The Stone and a personal favourite Kerry Girl display an uncanny knack of bringing that image that I spoke about earlier into the emotional sphere-it just makes you feel nice!
They have already had nods of approval from West Midlands BBC but I think with this current album the nods will definitely increase- I really like this band.
Album released on 07 10 13
Malisa
Last up is this lady from Leeds called Malisa who drops a fresh new single called Don’t Know Tomorrow a RnB pop number that is the debut bit of output from this gorgeous looking lady.
Produced by Levels/EMI-signed OD Hunte whose production credits also include Emeli Sande, Wretch 32 and Josh Kumra this track is a good starting point for this lady who will be releasing her debut album early next year.
Unfortunately I have not heard that debut but I hope she has some real numbers that delve into pure RnB flexes as well as a few up-tempo numbers because her voice really seems to have a versatility that should be explored fully. In terms of production I do not know who is fiddling the knobs either but yes I think that off this first track there is enough to ask the questions if she indeed will be a future flavour?!