Brazilian Graffiti Fire: Pixação by Joao Wainer + Roberto T. Oliveira (Documentary Review)

“Covering buildings throughout São Paulo, pixação is a style of graffiti native to Brazil and known for its simple, angular lines. In this episode of Cool Hunting Video, we tour the city streets with Joao Wainer, photographer and co-director of a documentary on the subject, who fills us in on the culture and history.” –CoolHunting.com

Pixação is a documentary that I first caught up with when it was first screened in Paris in July in 2009 at the Cartier Foundation.  It was later to be showed in October 2009 during the 33^rd International Film Festival in Sao Paulo.  This one hour plus film was directed by Joao Wainer and Roberto T. Oliveira, with commentaries by Wainer and endeavours to decipher the motivation, circumstances and environment of graffistas in Sao Paulo who have developed a unique form of graffiti in Brazil since the 80s: the pixação. Read more

Album Review: Raheem Devaughn – The Love & War Masterpeace

Soul is Passion and Love. Soul is a Message. That is why Soul is Power. That is where Raheem DeVaughn is Soul.  Empowering his third album The Love And War Masterpeace with a dual vision, Raheem pens reality with neo-soul’s ink and takes a firm stance: in our world let there be love, for our world let there be outspoken social awareness.

The team for this LP is flamboyant and numerous, featuring producers Kenny Dope (who produced most of this LP), Ne-Yo, the Stereotypes, Ronnie “Lil Ronnie” Jackson, Ivan “Orthodox” Barias, Carvin “Ransom” Haggins, Big Bob, Symfoniz and Jerry Jukes Vine and spoken interludes as introductions to tracks by the mighty scholar Dr Cornel West.

The featuring artists extend a celestial line-up of R&B, Hip Hop and Raggae suns: Ludacris, Wale, Malik Yusef, Damian Marley. For the gospel soul-stirring track “Nobody Wins A War” no less than Jill Scott, Bilal, Anthony Hamilton, Algerbra, Chrisette Michele,  Shelby Johnsson, Ledisi, Citizen Cope, Dwele, Chico DeBarge and Rudy Currence lend their voices. Read more

Album Review: Keke Wyatt – Who Knew?

R&B songstress Keke Wyatt is back with a brand new album Who Knew? – and a brand new look. She still remains to have that soul soothing, exhilarating voice she had when first made her debut feature on Avant’s first album, My Thoughts (2000) on the cover of René & Angela classic “My First Love”. I personally first fell in love with Keke Wyatt’s voice when I heard her on another duet with Avant, “Nothing In This World”. Her voice blew me away, she has always been my definition of an R&B artist with a beautiful strong voice.

Her first album Soul Sista was released in 2001, which debuted Certified Gold and went on to place in the Top 5 on the R&B album charts.  Even that album did not meet my standards of what I expected from her – I knew that she could deliver more – and her new album Who Knew? definitely compensates for that. Read more

Album Review: Mama’s Gun – Routes To Riches

If one record appropriately heralds the long-awaited advent of Spring it’s Routes To Riches (Deluxe Edition), the feel-good debut by UK outfit Mama’s Gun.  Still, it’s not hard to envision the album ruffling some feathers if it gets the recognition it deserves – their style of funk with an unabashed pop-edge is bound to spark some debate amongst listeners, the likely crux of which being whether their sound is ‘watered down’ and gazing too longingly at commercial success. Heck, the album title hardly refutes this assumption.  But as mainstream soul acts such as The Brand New Heavies, Jamiroquai and Incognito proved in the 1990s, ain’t nothing wrong with a bit of pop-fusion if you know what you are doing… and Mama’s Gun prove that they do. Read more

Mixtape Review: Wretch 32 – Wretch32.com

Whilst many of today’s acts achieve success in all areas, there are only a few whose wordplay prick our ears due to the magnitude of their lyricism. Amidst those who do so, Wretch 32 is the artist most commonly mentioned within the Grime and Hip Hop circuit. His 2008 debut Wretchrospective sported some of the biggest hits of that year as well as the most in-depth verses to come from the UK in recent times. As a shortage of such artists is evident, this makes each Wretch release an anticipated one and his new mixtape should hopefully provide enough material for lyrical fans to teethe on. Read more

Live Review: Elisa Caleb Quintet at The Vortex, London

What better way to take the edge off a cold Monday night in winter than in the company of jazz vocalist Elisa Caleb and her impressive quintet?  Those were my thoughts whilst sat ensconced in the candlelit intimacy of the Vortex Jazz Bar last Monday as the lovely Mrs Caleb and band took to the stage. Elisa’s unadulterated jazz and blues offerings make for a refreshing change to the many Beyoncé-wannabes currently cluttering the R&B/Pop stable.

And if you are expecting just another evening of standards and covers, think again.  The majority of Elisa’s set is comprised of original material written by her husband, guitarist Jo Caleb.  These sophisticated and intelligent compositions – with just a little feel for Norah Jones – are the perfect vehicle for the warm, honeyed vocals of his missus.

Songs such as starkly arranged ‘The Wind’, ‘Bring Back Spring’, ‘Falling Towers’ and the wonderfully enchanting bossa nova number ‘Untitled no.1’ showcase the pure attraction of Elisa’s voice.  One would hardly believe that the songstress didn’t even consider herself a singer well into young adulthood; she’s certainly made up for lost time. Read more

Live Review: Jay Electronica at London Jazz Cafe (18th Feb)

Whether or not New Orleans born rapper Jay Electronica will eventually be known as Hip Hop’s last great hope or merely Hip Hop’s latest great hype is a question which has agitated and befuddled the underground Rap community since at least his 2007 release Act I: Eternal Sunshine (The Pledge), in which Jay rhymes over snippets of Jon Brion’s immaculate score for the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The answer to the question is, of course, what hundreds of Hip Hop fans left their homes for and why they turned up in droves last Thursday night at Camden’s Jazz Café – where Jay was to stage his debut headline performances.

After filling the crowd with more anticipation than the air in 600 balloons by emerging on stage over an hour later then expected, Jay goes straight into a short tribute to the late J Dilla and then asks the crowd to raise their fingers up in a moment of commemoration. The surprising thing here is how quickly the audience obeys and how strangely at ease this man is on stage. Jay is so at ease, in fact, that he starts drinking a bottle of Jack Daniels, invites a fan up to have his picture taken and eventually starts discussing his favorite football team.

After several more of these comfortable interludes it occurs to me that these people aren’t here to find out if Jay is pure hype or true hope. These people already believe that Jay Electronica is the greatest rapper alive and are here just to tell him. And Jay is, of course, here to milk the admiration. Which he does with style, charisma and finesse. Read more

Album Review: Electric Wire Hustle – Electric Wire Hustle (Every Waking Hour)

Very rarely has there been an album that has exceeding the expectations of this reviewer. It may be even rarer that there’s an artist that I haven’t heard about make such a massive impact on me and my listening habits. Fortunately, Electric Wire Hustle have exceeded with both.

Their album, titled Every Waking Hour, is a homage to soul giants like Marvin Gaye and Donny Hathaway yet embodies an intimate knowledge of Dilla-esque Hip Hop music that sparked the neo soul movement (even though that term seems exhausted). Proving that there’s more hailing from New Zealand than the ‘Flight of the Concords’, this album is an array of excellent production thick with hypnotic melodies and boom-bap inspired drums. Read more

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