Pa Salieu: Send Them to Coventry

another thing in my head this week has been echoes of early Tricky in some of the production, depending on mood it's very intimate at the same time as it bangs

don't know that it would ever have occurred to me but that slide whistle/flute sound on "B***k" definitely has a Maxinquaye feel

I've been lukewarm on Mahalia before, but she really makes "Energy". The video that just came out does a simple but otm trick by switching from b&w to colour when she comes in.

Also, in line with the 80s pop drawing on African sounds production notes, "Energy" reminds me a little of Lizzy Mercier Descloux's Mambo Nassau

oh i don't know her, thanks

there's a LOT of 80s pop/r'n'b on this, the more i listen to it

Mambo Nassau is great, though I won't be surprised if you don't really hear what I'm hearing there (for one thing, it has a heavy US funk/disco influence that is not at all present on the Pa album).

"Over There" is really sick, I like how malleable his voice is on it. The beats on this whole album are wild as hell. People who like this should check out M1llionz, the guy featured on "Informa" - he's probably my favourite UK drill rapper right now, has a really subtle, slippery delivery

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOzb7zWfJeM

M1llionz is sick. Y Pree is my fave of his tunes.

Only just got round to listening to this album and I'm loving it, I've been really impressed by how he's been making this drill/Afro hybrid and I'm really impressed that he's been able to keep the levels up over the course of a mixtape.

Even though I am into drill I can find it quite monotone/relentless so I tend to listen to it for only a short amount of time rather than sitting with it for an hour or so. There's enough variety on this that it can hold my interest for that sort of time, so that's good. Same applies to the Headie One album.

Here's another feature of his from earlier this year because why the hell not

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My05cYX_2iM

SL x Pa Salieu - Hit The Block

this is miles better than headie’s album

Love this.

"Energy" bassline is Pino Palladino ffs

― big man on scampus (Noodle Vague), Friday, November 13, 2020 12:48 PM (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Oh really? Is it a sample or did they get Pino?

Headie One album really faltered when he got away from drill. The straightforward rap tracks tend to fall flat on that album. This record does variety in a much more organic way that really works. I enjoyed that SL EP with Kenny Beats earlier this year

xp sorry Jordan i just meant the sound of it

i like the Headie One album well enough but it feels very slight compared to this one

headie's alb was somehow both slight and overlong, with great moments spliced in (mostly the drill tracks and the more playful moments like the aitch collab)

his gang ep w/ fred again, on the other hand, is the only competition with salieu's latest when it comes to visceral, cohesive sonic experiences in uk rap.

That Gang EP was awesome. “Charades” is one of my favourite songs of the year and the Jamie xx collab actually worked really well

such an addictive album is this, lots of ear-worms on it - as they say.

lol just played Betty 3 times in a row

might as well go

BOOM NO WARNIN'

on here again instead of Blue Saturday

i'm evangelizing this thing

Everyone otm, this guy rules.

yep

i gotta say to voodoo i thought GANG was the Headie album, missed out on the full thing, got to catch up

there's not much on it that sounds like gang, it's a real major label debut kind of thing with features from future, skepta, etc. there are some great moments woven throughout, but it is a bit unwieldy.

only got around to this last week, but I'm loving it.
what *is* that 80s sound on "Active" tho? thought it might be a sample, but apparently not.

i completely missed this thread but yeah this album is fantastic. manages to cover so much ground in a pretty short time. i do love how it finally goes full on summery afroswing at the end with "energy" after kind of teasing that direction amongst all the bleaker sounds

hadn't heard "bang out" until now but it's fantastic too

does anyone know which david sylvian or japan track is sampled on "betty"?

I do not, but that reminds me I’ve been meaning to mention that after NV said he heard Tricky in this, I couldn’t stop hearing it. This might be my aoty

I don't know either, but you could ask Mixmag, they seem to know what's what:

You can feel the diasporic influences pulsing through Pa Salieu’s songs. He recently explored the Black-British experience in his drill cut ‘Bang Out’. “I come from a place where feds label you gang-related / sorry if you look like me, somehow you’re just gang-related” he spits over a lively beat which samples the song ‘Japan’ by 80s indie pop band Ghosts.

(this piece has only been up for six months now)

winner of the BBC Sound of 2021!

well deserved but maybe a little unfair since he's already released a critically acclaimed mixtape that's an album in all but name, that's much more fully formed than most sound of nominees are

he was on jimmy fallon last night?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLdQI7KAYl8

Love it, he deserves the exposure

Loving Energy

great, performance too, with those pitbulls and the fuzzy red knife lady haha

much more lively and creative than, say, playboi carti's performance from the other night

Can't remember if it was here or another thread where someone told me I should give him a try despite my general antipathy toward the heavy accent on a lot of grime and drill emerging from the UK, and I finally downloaded this record...fucking brilliant stuff, love it!

it’s a fantastic album. one of my favourites from last year.

Truly— been bopping it today whilst doing arduous editing work, and its been excellent

very happy you like this, but honestly far more interested to hear how you do editing while listening to music? I can't even do instrumental stuff lately

that aside, I listened to this again recently after a little time away and it's really deep sonically (not just bass-heavy, I mean lots of layers). I don't have a problem with accents in grime etc., but I do think the way Salieu uses his accent is super musical and one of my favorite aspects of the album

It's so so good. I find with this kind of thing I can generally appreciate it on a track by track basis but I can listen to this whole album without feeling exhausted and usually Judy want to put it straight back on again

Just, not Judy. This phone

rob, at the moment, I'm doing a lot of medical editing and proofing work. Doing word-for-words and fixing references and whatnot just doesn't require much in terms of concentration, at least in my world.

(For this particular record, I was doing a word-for-word of a powerpoint with 140 slides lol)

this album's secret is that it is so breezy and likeable

it's one of those - hard to define - sets where everything bangs and is perfect, just put together as an amazing set

and the closing track is so gorgeous, makes you wanna play it over

how you do editing while listening to music?

Not table, obv., but I can scarcely get any work done without music playing in the background, it's pathological. I belatedly got into metal while writing my thesis – it was just about the only thing that kept me going.

More to the point: Pa Salieu rules.

I do not do any other writing or editing to music, absent emails and such.

But for the gig I'm working? Whatever, I'm Freelance and getting paid an absurd sum to fact check references and make sure things are in their right place before they go live or to print. It is so easy and boring that if I didn't listen to music, I'd fall asleep

Also Pa Salieu rules, and 'Energy' really does make one want to go back and listen to the whole thing again

it's not complicated, if you listen to Send Them to Cov you'll get it

the more of everbody that get into this

so perfect

convo to be had about blah blah blah elsewhere

but it's spectacularly perfect

Like it!

Most consistent UK rapper? Could be

terrific track

yeah he's great on that! we need a new album

Technically a first album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znO2iRtWnpo

Pa Salieu - Mista / Lennon Freestyle - the second beat is quite 90s, not what you'd expect from. It totally works though

The content of the first part may be related to this unfortunate news - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-62401973

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prf0GTmKX4o

Blessing Me has a video too

Jailed for 33 months

was working in cov at the time and it was a ridiculous rise in violence, thankfully calmed down a bit now but yeesh

damn