Second Guess
In The Sun
Reel People
Second Guess, 2005
This is another dose of new British soul that I’m catching up with 2-5 years late, as usual. There is a pretty comprehensive bio on their site but in short, “young record store manager Oli Lazarus initiated his Reel People project back in 2000…the project’s first release. “Spiritual”…found favour…gain[ed] a reputation…straddling the boundaries of house and broken beat…Oli came across the talents of Mike Patto…invaluable compositional element…working with Dyanna Fearon, a vocalist from the D-Influence stable, Reel People began to take shape as an actual band…full release on Papa in July 2003…string of worldwide live dates…Defected Records re-releasing ‘Second Guess’ in early 2006 with three brand new tracks…Mike and Oli again drafted in the amazing vocals of Angela Johnson on ‘In the Sun’…another world tour taking in Sao Paolo, Miami, Europe and the UK…”
It was hard to pick what song to post because there are five songs I play off of this album (an abnormally high number), so I picked two that really show the varying moods of their production. “Second Guess” is perfect night driving music. The upright bassline sounds a little like “Juice (Know The Ledge)” by Eric B. & Rakim, but the as soon as the keyboards come in at :15 it’s clear that the song is going in a much more layered, subtle direction. The syncopated percussion anchors the atmospheric instrumentation and keeps the song from floating away.
“In The Sun” features Brooklyn’s Angela Johnson (who was the former singer for Cooly’s Hot Box and has two solo albums under her belt as well). It also features their trademark syncopated percussion but (true to the title) conjers a sunny daytime vibe. What takes this song to the next level is the change up at 2:03 (and 4:07) where they throw in a slightly foreboding descending bassline that adds a little contrast to all the sunny vibes.
>> songs are available for two weeks [9.3 MB]
>> songs are available for two weeks [8.3 MB]
