Music supervisor Morgan Rhodes and Oliver Wang from Soul-Sides.com bring us new music by Iman Omari, Miles Tackett, Vacationer and more.
Morgan's Picks
Artist: Iman Omari
Album: Samadhi EP
Songs: "Wait A Minute (feat Tiffany Gouche)" "Take You There"
Iman Omari is the son of a one of the founding members of a popular '80s group. Have a dozen releases in the last couple of years, he is a rising star in the future soul genre and an expert in marrying samples, loops, beats and vocals.
Artist: Vacationer
Album: Relief
Songs: "Fresh" "Go Anywhere"
Vacationer is considered Nu-Hula...think tropical dream pop. This is the second full length album from these indie darlings from Philadelphia.
Artist: Purple Ferdinand
Album: Dragonfly EP
Songs: "Birds" "Wasn't Taught To"
Last year, East London's Purple Ferdinand got a nice shout from BBC 1, a place on their hot in 2013 list. This off the strength of an unreleased EP called Beautiful Anomaly. Organic, acoustic soul with a side of sultry.
Oliver's Picks
Artist: Miles Tackett
Album: The Fool Who Wanders
Songs: "Come Away" "Just What I Need"
Miles Tackett formed Breakestra back in the mid 1990s and they've been a stalwart retro-soul/funk band in L.A. Tackett also runs the long running Funky Sole party in Echo Park. Though Breakestra has put out a slew of recordings, this is Miles's first solo effort and it definitely has a different sound from Breakestra: less frenetic, more mellow, and Miles feeling out his vocal oats in a way that we didn't hear often with Breakestra.
Artist: Big Freedia
Album: Just Be Free
Songs: "Explode"
Big Freedia is a New Orleans sissy bounce artist by way of Jamaica, knowing for super high energy dance tracks. This is his fourth studio album, "Explode" was the lead single.
Artist: Sam Smith
Song: "How Will I Know"
This is a one-off cover he did for SiriusXM radio and he takes one of Whitney's best known dance tunes and flipped into a mega-croony ballad. Surprisingly good!