Released - 6/23/09
Label - Ubiquity Records
BLURB - A buffet of sounds, with limitless soul, r&b, jazz, hip-hop and avant garde. This is what has been lacking from music. It's weird and strange, yet simple and to the point. Not since Andre 3000's efforts on, 'The Love Below' have I heard orchestration and composition like this. With two discs, totaling twenty-three tracks there are so many choices, possibilities and options for the listener to tune in to. If you like cookie cutter smooth r&b and typical hip-hop, you'll hate 'Nuclear Evolution.' This record really pushes the limits of so many different genres in such a relaxed motion. I can't put it down.
Rating - 10 out of 10
FULL STORY - For those that don't know, Sa-Ra Creative Partners is a three man songwriting and production posse. They've written with tons of other artists and have flown under the radar appearing mostly on mix tapes. Their work and song construction is very direct and extremely well thought out. It's blatantly obvious that they do not write material for themselves and almost prefer to stay out of the spotlight. Nearly half of this record has female vocals, yet Sa-Ra is three guys. The production of their songs are tailored to be great songs and great music. If they appear on the track, fine, but if they can achieve the sound they are striving to create through other vocalists, musicians or emcees, they acknowledge that, and get themselves out of the way. It's creating the best music they can create, even if it is for another performer. Music for music's sake.
'Spacefruit' opens the album brilliantly. This track wanders through space and open air with an uncharacteristic beat and very few lyrics. I can vision this as the opening to a movie - it works just as well opening the record. 'Spacefruit' takes off somewhere near Mars and ends up in Harlem. The second track, 'Dirty Beauty' is very chill and a great song to ride your beat up old huffy around town to. There is rapping but it is more like slow talking, to a beat. Very relaxed, with no real direction. 'I Swear' is the third track and is brilliant. There are female vocals all over the place, in the foreground, in the background, coming out of left field...all over a foundation of light jazz keyboards. The pace is slow but it works for the song. Think of this as if a producer told Corinne Bailey Rae to just relax and sing whatever came to her over a downbeat, minimal jazz-pop groove.
'Traffika' gets nice and urban for the audience. The song bashes cops constantly, but you'd never know because it's not in your face ala NWA. This is easily the most hip-hop track on the record and discusses drug trafficking and corrupt cops trying take out the new generation of intelligent, soulful urban youths.
"It's the nu-bonic plague, we gotta get away. Crooked ass cops, they comin from the blocks"
The best track to groove to is, 'Bitch Baby.' There is a really nice, old school drum beat which is countered with a very new school synth loop. This is Sa-Ra at their best. Let's take something amazing from past but then add something amazing from the present...and let's make it groove. 'Bitch Baby' is followed up by the vintage-sounding, 'Love Czars.' Another downtempo track that sounds like it is out of a history book and is also great to groove to. Right away I thought of one of my favorite groups growing up...Arrested Development. A guitar riff with the treble way up flows throughout the song, visiting both high and low registers. There aren't many lyrics with this one, but it's still great. Clocking in at nearly eight minutes, you can just hit play, kick your feet up and nod your head to the calming beat.
'Gemini's Rising,' which is more or less the song the group is pushing the most, offers vocals coming from all directions, intermingled with a bunch of futuristic sounds and effects. It's not the best song on the record, but it's easy to like, and once again, laid back. 'The Bone Song' follows this up, and no it's not about tibias and femurs. Plain and simply it's about fucking. The sex is turned on for this r&b track and features a raunchy chorus...
'Is it that I want you? Do I just want to bone you? The little things that you do, just make me wanna bone you. Girl, as long as I've known you, I've been tryin to bone you, so tell me what we gonna do...'
The award for the second coolest dance jam on the album goes to, 'Move Your Ass.' An awe-inspiring funk bass riff soars through the track at a blistering pace, with dashes of keyboards, synth and other effects. No lyrics, no raps, no background vocals...just a great, funky, experimental dance beat done to perfection. But don't worry...there are some great vocals on here too. 'My Star' features some angelic voicing, which sounds eerily similar to Corinne Bailey Rae. That is a huge compliment by the way, and further...now everybody knows my fanaticism with Corinne Bailey Rae.
The end of the record gets very funky and very experimental. 'Spaceways Theme' sounds like a futuristic jazz piano improvisation. There is also an avant guarde feel to this track. There are plenty of dissonant notes that just sound wrong and out of place, but as you listen to the song over and over again, you wouldn't change it. The next song, 'Just Like a Baby' give the audience some blues beats mixed with a very laid back funk vibe. Imagine George Clinton singing the blues in a lounge.
Embracing the auto-tune generation, Sa-Ra belts out the voice modulator for, 'Double Dutch (Co Co Pops).' This song needs to be on the radio and in clubs. It's so catchy and makes up for a lot of the energy that some of the record lacks.
The aforementioned award for coolest dance jam goes to, 'Death of a Superstar (Supernova).' I guarantee after you hear this the first time, it will be stuck in your head for a month. Very old school and disco-esque with tons of synth and great production. This is the best song on the album, and one of the better songs I've heard all year. 'Powder Bump' and 'Hanging By a String' close out the record as they should. These are two great songs that bend genres. Is it techno? Is it jazz? Is it synth-pop? Is it hip hop? Is it r&b? The answer to each question is arguably, yes. The music and production, again, is so incredibly well done that there are no lyrics, but you never even notice. There is so much going on, that with each song you inevitably get lost in them. As should be the overall theme of, 'Nuclear Evolution: The Age of Love.'
This is easily the most eclectic, modern, laid back, hip-hop, futuristic, urban, jazz, r&b record I've ever heard. That being said, I've never heard all of those categories brought together as one, before this. It's incredibly new. Get lost in it.
Tracks
1.) Spacefruit
2.) Dirty Beauty
3.) I Swear
4.) Melodee N'mynor
5.) He Say She Say
6.) Traffika
7.) Souls Brother
8.) Bitch Baby
9.) Love Czars
10.) Gemini's Rising
11.) The Bone Song
12.) White Cloud
13.) Move Your Ass
14.) Love Today
15.) Can I Get You Hi
16.) My Star
17.) Cosmic Ball
18.) Spaceways Theme
19.) Just Like a Baby
20.) Double Dutch (Co Co Pops)
21.) Death of a Star (Supernova)
22.) Powder Bump
23.) Hangin' By a String
awesome thanks!
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