We cannot lie #itchysilk had never heard of the four-piece outfit Ralean.
Hailing from Germany, Ralean are headed by their hugely creative female vocalist Olivia Yahh aka Ralean. The singer songwriter evidently lives a dual existence and is a dab hand at painting- the cover artwork for the forth coming ep dropping on the 21 04 17 a testament to that assertion. The remaining trio making up this uber collective are; Leon March on vocals and bass (great riffs), Leon Raum on drums (those sequences are intricately brilliant) and Marco Zugner sax and synths (totally sexy).
Turning our attention to art of the musical form it’s safe to say Ralean’s musical artistry, is vibrant, colourful, engaging and full of soulful jazz brush strokes. Past output features some great music-loving the 16 track Twines Rework project which came out last month (massive). There’s also an album which came out last year. It was 9-tracks called Twines (which inspired the rework of course) where they delve into smoky down-tempo jazz numbers as the keys tinkle and the sax both hold court while Olivia punctuates the numbers with her husky vocal it’s totally nice. Indeed, Ralean’s discography is awash with certified classy numbers that point to an outfit who are going to be on the musical landscape for the foreseeable future.
So, the current project ΜΞDΙΛΝΤΞΝΡΞΤΤΙΝG ♥ ΒΞΛΤ ♯4……well the crew at Wadada Records are being a bit strict on hearing the full ep before that release but it’s all good the teaser title track is more than enough enticement. If this track is anything to go by the next project will fuse futuristic jazz and soul with a colouring of funk-in essence while the Twines project seemed to encourage listening the coming project may well be inclined to encourage people to show off their two-step acumen. It opens with those futuristic sounds before launching headlong into 5.38 of vibes for listeners to fully acquiesce to-the bass on the number is huge.
We really cannot wait to hear the ep in full and we are hopeful that we might even get some time to talk with them-stay #itchysilk.