TRESOR, the Congolese-South African singer with the heavenly voice

Beautiful stuff

at a crisp 98 minutes this is going to take a while to fully digest, but on first contact it's as gorgeous as I hoped. Listening to "Soro" right now, which is superb

oh wow "Dust in the Wind" is a whole journey—I had to keep checking it was the same track

and now "Angelina" has an organ solo following a vibraphone solo, this album is going to be amazing isn't it

im in for this

btw Motion has a June 25 release date now. I was bummed when RITJ was moved, but I'm pretty into how well this fits the spring weather after all

wow, this is brilliant. "La Vie Est Belle", "Mali Mali", "Limbisa Nga", plus "Starry Night" (and "Love Like A Weapon" in its wake), where Kabza is finally going full "Ilog Drum" on Tresor and us, spoke to me most on the first pass, none of the ones rob mentions did funnily enough. but listening to it again, this time on headphones (and while *not* working) this is liquid gold. every track sounds great, even the corny lyrics in "Dust In The Wind", which took me out of it earlier, became just that: dust in the wind.

"La Vie Est Belle" is the one tho:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UCq0dpPWF0

and yes, Tresor's voice...

it's all really pleasant but has the classic amapiano album problem of being really so much to digest all at once, will take quite a few listens to wrap my head around

none of the ones rob mentions did funnily enough.

Oh that's not surprising at all! Sorry for boring detail here but: I'd listened to the first four tracks the night before and was just picking up where I left off and live-appreciating each track in order. I have no idea what the highlights are yet tbh—in fact "Funu" stood out the most at first, simply because I already loved it.

Also, part of the "journey" of Dust for me was it initially presenting as a very syrupy pop song but then blossoming into something more surprising, a good example of the length being made good use of rather than being a genre requirement.

"La vie est belle" est tellement beau, c'est vrai

Just a random detail I'm enjoying at present: the dog bark (?) that becomes prominent for a spell in Folasade's outro

it's all really pleasant but has the classic amapiano album problem of being really so much to digest all at once, will take quite a few listens to wrap my head around

“Love Is Like A Weapon” bangs. could soundtrack a movie about a gay cruising party

This is going on my YEL. Tresor adds so much focus and consistency to the KdS project. This is not their most varied but the production is gorgeous.

this album is incredible

interview with DJ Maphorisa, he talks about Tresor as well towards the end:

https://www.okayafrica.com/dj-maphorisa-scorpion-kings-interview/

nice, that's a good interview

voodoo chili otm, though the first half is still a lot more concrete in my mind than the second. And in particular the opening 4 track run is amazing, really glad I didn't over-listen to "Funu" as it still sounds fresh

yeah i agree that the first half is stronger, less vibey and more song-oriented. the magic also slips away a little during the english language songs but that’s probably a me problem, not a problem with the music itself

so nobody got as far as “Starry Night”/“Love Like A Weapon”, huh?

I have focused a lot on the second part myself with Mali Mali, Limbisa Nga, Malaika and Starry Night.

Oh, I don't think the first half is necessarily stronger overall (though honestly it is hard to skip those first four), I just meant I haven't really absorbed the back half yet for various banal reasons. I think I'll start off with the two breastcrawl mentioned next time!

Tresor with Black Motion:

he’s on “BloodStream” on last year’s The Healers album, but I prefer this track he did in 2016 for an earlier album of theirs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jxlm-xE4lV8
Black Motion ft. Tresor & Mahotella Queens • So-Where-To

just came across this interesting discussion of Rumble in the Jungle: https://thenativemag.com/scorpion-kings-tresor-rumble-discussion/

they have very good things to say about both Tresor and Kabza, but I especially like the pro-shaker rhetoric here:

I love “Starry Night” because it has this echoey feeling that makes Tresor’s voice achingly beautiful. It’s also one of the songs where the shakers are literally at par with the rest of the instrumentation –  another mark of how experimental this album is — but the shakers just give me good vibes. Tresor doesn’t have to shout or contort his voice, it just spurts out and that’s what I love about the sub-genre: that sense of ease.

Tresor will appear in that Metallica Blacklist covers album. His contribution is the one I’m the most interested in hearing.

what's happening with Motion, is there a date it got delayed to or was it just put off indefinitely?

Tresor will appear in that Metallica Blacklist covers album. His contribution is the one I’m the most interested in hearing.

J Balvin is also on it - reggaeton goes rock, should appeal to you!

xp to ufo:
I don’t see any recent mention of Motion on his Twitter, so probably postponed again?

he has a feature on "Shangri-La" by Afrikaans band Die Heuwels Fantasties:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Sy0p30c-Sc

Motion has ominously disappeared from iTunes :(

Anyone else listen to Motion? Came out a few weeks ago (finally). It's nice.

I need to spend more time with it tbh, but I agree that it's nice!

ooh i didn't know it had finally come out, thanks for the heads up

it's pretty good

It’s a lot like his previous solo album, but I loved that so…

yeah this is fantastic stuff all the way through

^yes, this finally clicked for me, absolutely love it