Abundantly Clear

When your debut release is so good that 3 years after its release, those in the know still hail it's niceness & the artists involved in said album are fast carving their way through the industry, what comes next? You simply gather some new artists, change your sound & make an even better one. Waajeed & Saadiq have created an extraordinary piece of work. I recently said that Raphael Saadiq's 'The Way I See it' set a benchmark & that it would take quite a while for it to be bettered. The fact that Abundance has upped the ante so soon afterwards took me by complete surprise. If youre a fan of 'Triple P' then get that sound out of your head ASAP. Abundance goes in a new direction & as good as their beat skills already were, the duo have blown their 1st effort out of the water with what they have achieved here. But importantly, the signature of what made Triple P great hasn't been left behind. the changes come from the expansiveness of Abundance as a whole. The Andre 3000 like bounce of Smoking Mirrors being a great example. While Triple P was a soulful head nod, this go round is much a far more varied journey. From the aforementioned Smoking Mirrors you go straight into the uplifting Funk stylings of 'on A Cloud'. The other main reason for this albums greatness is it's cohesion, which in no small part is down to the fact that there are only 2 prominent features from start to fiish. karma Stewart & Coultrain fit both the songs & each others vocals like a glove. I would suggest that there is a lot more musical chemistry between all parties this time & the whole thing has a far more polished feel than it's predecessor. Karma is surely going to go on to big things in the next year or 2 & Coultrain won't be far behind. If the fantastic 'Luv Affair' or 'Dirty Secrets' & Spaced out funk Masterpiece that is Rocket Science doesn't see them becoming an awful lot busier sometime soon then I don't know what will. The other cohesive factor is the arrangement of the tracks. It's a work of genius as one track simply flows in to the next without breaking stride. But to be frank any album is only the sum of it's parts & it all boils down to the songs. Well the songs that make up those said parts are of such a high standard that unless Raphael out does himself with another release this year. I can't see anything topping Abundance this year. And we've only just reached February. It's gonna be a long year.

p e a c e

PPP - Abundance: 3 track selection

edit: Play Rocket Science on a decent sound system & get down