Seems to be a fair amount of stuff out there, worth digging around a bit. A few things on my radar:

New Droog & Fahim EP, Wall Street 2.

A number of notable R&B/soul projects worth checking:
* Amber Mark much-hyped full-length debut, Three Dimensions Deep
* Maverick Sabre (voice and approach reminds me a bit of Mara TK's release last year, pretty nice!)
* Nija, Didn't Say I Didn't Warn You
* Lady Wray, Piece of Me

What else is out there that you're checking out this week?

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~

Albums:
Rick Ross - Richer Than I Ever Been (Deluxe) - has 3 bonus tracks, which are all pretty nice
Drinks On Me - Rise & Fall (VIPs)
Jacques Greene - Fantasy
Amber Mark - Three Dimensions Deep
Vegyn - Don't Follow Me Because I'm Lost Too!!
Cabu - So Far To Go


Singles:
James Blake - Pick Me Up
Nigo, A$AP Rocky - Arya
Medhane, Lord Apex - Wonder Why
Kilo Kish - NEW TRICKS: ART, AESTHETICS, AND MONEY (feat. Vince Staples)
Saba - Survivor's Guilt (feat. G Herbo)
Jeshi - Another Cigarette (feat. Fredwave)
Sly5thAve & Roberto Verastegui - Tie Break
The Cool Kids - It's Yours, Pt. 2
PJ Morton - Ready To Love
p-rallel - Get Done (feat. Kasien)
Breakbot & Irfane - Remedy
Raveena - Secret (feat. Vince Staples)
Junia-T - So Amazing (Remix) (feat. taji love, Nana)
Benny The Butcher, J. Cole - Johnny P's Caddy

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Frisson Radio | Saturdays 6-8 PM EST | 89.5 FM (Toronto) | www.ciut.fm
https://www.instagram.com/frissonradio

>Amber Mark - Three Dimensions Deep

First impressions: there are a lot of good songs on here but it's an album with a bit of an identity crisis. And I can't decide how much of the goodness is because of her or just because it's musically strong. I'll be going back for sure though, there's a lot of stuff to like.


-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~

Albums:

Eli Sostre - 566 (EP)
Maverick Sabre - Don't Forget To Look Up
Samm Henshaw - Untidy Soul
D Power Diesle - Graphene, Vol. 2
Na-Kel Smith - SKULLFACE BONEHEAD

---

Frisson Radio | Saturdays 6-8 PM EST | 89.5 FM (Toronto) | www.ciut.fm
https://www.instagram.com/frissonradio

>Maverick Sabre - Don't Forget To Look Up

Listened to this this morning, really enjoyed it. His name is mostly new to me - I think I've seen him on a few features - but I guess he's been around a while? Reminds me of some of James Vincent McMorrow (which might make some sense, as they're both Irish).

>Samm Henshaw - Untidy Soul

About to listen to this now. Nice week for r&b for sure.


-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~

This song is perfect! Tana Talk 4 - I’m highly anticipating it.

https://youtu.be/klZNvJArVSE

and went that hard all the time…..

I can’t stop playing it.

I love Alchemist’s projects in recent years, but this might be the best best he’s made for a single in a really long time.

>* Amber Mark much-hyped full-length debut, Three Dimensions
>Deep

I want to spend more time with this one. It's good, just not sure how good. It's sort of a weird mix of r&b styles from the 90s to today -- weird in a good way although it feels a bit disjointed.

>* Maverick Sabre - Don't Forget to Look Up
Unexpected favorite of the week so far. There's some lowkey brilliant stuff on here, makes me think of Mara TK, James Blake, or James Vincent McMorrow but it's also very fresh and its own thing. There are retro-ish nods throughout (like a bit of Motown on "Good Man" for one) but they're pretty tasteful, never karaoke. The vocals are awesome. Only flaw is it sort of lags a bit after the first half, still not really skipping any tracks though.

>* Lady Wray, Piece of Me
Ok, this is greatness -- produced by Leon Michels (El Michels Affair) so you know it's going to at least be good, but he really brought it on this album. One huge BUT though: wtf is up with the mix on some of these songs? They're doing this intentional compression thing on the vocals of "Through It All" but man, it's overdone to my ears -- like it sounds like not just the vocals but almost the whole track is clipping. Tried it on both my system and some headphones, same sound to my ears. Heard it on a few other tracks too. If anyone gives this a listen, let me know if you hear it or if I'm just crazy.

Hoping to listen today:

>New Droog & Fahim EP, Wall Street 2.
>* Nija, Didn't Say I Didn't Warn You

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~

Another strong r&b release from last week. Henshaw's voice reminds me a lot of John Legend's in both good and bad ways: it can pack a punch but that punch can also feel a little forced ... he has that slightly-strained-all-the-time voice...

The production here is a bit reminiscent of early Legend's Kanye-affiliated material, too, although with a twist: Henshaw came up a bit in Chance the Rapper's extended circle and you can hear that influence a bit in a lot of the arrangements... something like the album's closer, "Joy," would have been perfectly at home on Coloring Book (it almost feels like a bit of a rip-off).

All of that said, there's a lot that I actually really enjoyed here. This isn't going to be an album of the year contender or anything, and yeah it feels a little derivative or easy, but this will probably get a lot of play from me while cooking/cleaning (and I mean that in a good way) -- good vibes for getting shit done. There's some real attention to some of the arrangements, too, very neo-soul-ish in its way.

Releasing it in January feels like a misstep - it'll be a good late spring/early summer record.

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~