Soul Britannia (Beverley Knight, Joss Stone, Michael Kiwanuka, Dionne Bromfield Feature)
Wednesday, 29 August 2012
Written by Josh Adams
Since borrowing and evolving from the original African-American experience, pinching it’s favourites from blues, jazz and gospel, over 50 years on from it’s inception – and Britain proves it’s still got an appetite for not only producing – but consuming Soul in colossal quantities.
The last Grammy Awards saw pseudo-icon of the moment Adele Adkins swept up all 6 of her nominated gongs with an album that captivated not just a nation, but half a planet’s musical pysche, and over something so embedded and expected in the human experience, a shit relationship.
We’re all familiar with the affect an artist has on seemingly erasing our memory of other talent within the genre, but despite popular belief, the 23-year-old Adele and the late Miss Winehouse are not the only residents of our island that have managed to turn unfortunate romantics into a successful sound, so being the good man I am – I’ve taken the opportunity to point out some otherwise overlooked Soul’ers within our midst, Enjoy.
Beverley Knight, despite not receiving constant mainstream success and coverage, the chances are you’d be familiar with one of her renditions. Widely tipped as one of the UK’s ‘greatest soul voices’, with 6 studio albums she’s got a musical CV that makes Duffy look like a blip on the radar, taking the sound to new dimensions; from urban simplicity to anthemic charm.
Joss Stone, still one of our diamonds in the rough, Joss Stone has soul appeal that went unmatched before Adele's time. With tracks like ‘You Had Me’ and a cover of James Brown’s ‘A Man’s World’ that turns it’s slightly chauvinistic patriarchal rhetoric into a message of female strength – this woman is a serious Soul Machine not to be messed with.
Michael Kiwanuka, session guitarist for producer ‘Labrinth’, touring with Adele and winning BBC’s Sound of 2012 sets a scary precedent for this folksy soul man. But his simple soft sound looks set to charm more and more as the year goes on. Expect a lot more in the future.
Dionne Bromfield – Ignore the fact she’s Amy Winehouse’s God-daughter, this one has everything and more to shout about on her own. Tipped as Shirley Bassey’s successor, Dionne pens solemn teenage angst while simultaneously accompanying with it a mature sound well beyond her years, mastered by brilliant arrangements and a welcome hark back to the jazzy days of old. Definitely one to watch.
Dionne Reid - a personal favourite of mine, and a definite talent. Taking the sound from it's age-old core and fusing it with her Reggae and Jamaican roots makes for a soundscape of pure hypnotic pleasure. If heartfelt lyrics and themes of spirituality are your cup of tea, Dionne Reid is one that you won't need anything to wash it down with.
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