The best Lyft rides are the ones where I get to my destination….obviously…. but also the ones where the driver is playing really good music. In Denver we have this amazing radio show on 102.3 FM called OpenAir, which my Lyft driver Justin was playing last night. OpenAir plays new music off the beaten path, indie music that can only be described as “niche” and “not radio typical”. By the time I arrived at the theater to see Alien: Covenant (which was chillingly awesome) I had discovered a couple new artists that I could further explore. It was a great ride.
The song that really intrigued me was “Green Twins”, which I discovered was the title-track off of Nick Hakim’s new album. When I went searching for music by this guy, I realized he was already regarded as a quickly emerging artist, and for good reason. The Queens-born and Brooklyn-based artist is the finest example of the folk-soul music that is growing in popularity. His sound has a lot of the typical lo-fi distortion of indie folk-rock, with a diffusion of the vocals that is at once plaintive and evocative, but it’s also crossing into other dimensions of popular music. Although the influences on his new album Green Twins are clearly eclectic, the arc in the album is the Soul in the sound. I went back and listened to his EP Where Will We Go, Pt. 2 (2014) and found that it is even more clearly rooted in Soul/R&B then this newest album. Pitchfork did a nice write-up on him you can read here, in which his difficult childhood as the child of immigrants from Peru, and a constant stream of teenage rejection, is touched upon. You can hear the tribulations in his songwriting, and some of his songs are just downright heartfelt and emotive, like the song “I Don’t Know”.
An emerging trend in modern music is the injection of Soul and R&B into every vein of popular music. Probably one of the most exciting areas of infusion is in the realm of indie rock and folk rock. We’ve been seeing this shift towards soul-inflection ever since Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon hit the scene (For Emma, Forever Ago (2007)), releasing soulful lo-fi folk and collaborating with artists like Kanye West and James Blake (also check out his band Gayngs, a fun mash-up of R&B, 80’s synth rock, and folk rock). More recent artists like Unknown Mortal Orchestra, James Vincent McMorrow, and to a lesser-degree Whitney, are adding dimensions of Soul, R&B, Jazz, and even Disco to their music, which is creating very alluring blends of music. Even the newest Fleet Foxes album Crack-Up, slated for June release, has promised to add some Soul flair to the Folk, and many are familiar with the music of J. Tillman (Father John Misty), their former drummer.
A fine example of this blend of musical stylings is Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s album Multi-Love (2015). Every song on this album takes a lo-fi garage production as the base and then adds layers of funk, soul, disco, or R&B. Take a listen to the song “Can’t Keep Checking My Phone”, which is notable for that funky Disco bass-line that keeps the song stepping.
Nick Hakim is an artist to keep an eye on not only for the great craft and unique emotion his songs contain, but also his contributions to the soul-folk we are seeing as an emerging sound in modern music. Sonikseek will be a periodical looking at some of these emerging artists that are stumbled upon, whether in the comfort of one’s home or in the back of somebody’s Lyft vehicle, or anywhere else unexpected. Here’s another good one from Hakim:
John
2017-08-25You are definitely riding in cooler lyfts than me…