- I shouldn’t say this, but I kinda decided I was going to like this record long before I pressed play. Natalie Slade’s latest full length outing, Control, has already been getting love from BBC1Extra, New York Times, NME etc, but I didn’t know that yet. First it was a strong recommend from a Sydney community radio buddy with her finger on the pulse, then it was learning that Slade was collaborating with the literal elite of our current crop of neo-soul and future-rnb heavyhitters: Myka Wallace, Nick Martyn, Paul Bender, Alon Ilsar and of course Simon Mavin. So somewhere between the insane roll-call of talent who wanted to work with her and learning it was coming out on London’s Eglo Records (a stable housing singular artists like Fatima, Floating Points, Henry Wu and Steve Spacek) I was pretty sure this was going to be my kinda thing.
Opening cut Cloud Cover is a throw-down statement of serious intent: upbeat, vibrant and densely arranged, with smart, punchy vocals that make it clear why people keep comparing her to Roisin Murphy. Slade, as a vocalist, has genuine agility, but as you follow her crisp, laconic delivery into the backing vox you soon realise her chops as an arranger are on point too. There’s some really smart harmony choices going on here, and it gives a clue to the kind of restless, adventurous harmonic approach that is the signature sound of this collab..
The album grew out of a series of sessions with Mavin, the Grammy-nominated wielder of keys for groups like Swooping Duck, The Putbacks and Hiatus Kaiyote, who’s habit of wringing only the most classic textures out of his synths is pure retro-futurist pleasure. Producing this record as well as performing, it’s not hard to see how Paul Bender’s frenetic bass-lines and Myka Wallace’s laser-precise drumming ended up helping sculpt Slade’s vision for the record into the minty-fresh listen that it is.
Control shifts easily between spiritual jazz, skewed dancehall, jazzy jungle, heaving bass-lines and loops all the way back around to some golden-era r’n’b feels. In a scene in Oz that is awash with talent like Allysha Joy, Laneous, Kaiit, Silent Jay and more, Natalie Slade’s Control stands out whilst deploying some of the best minds around. People are going to hear this record and know that there’s really something going on in our neo-soul scene here; as if anyone could still be on the fence about that.
More of this please! It’s virtually flawless. A ray of hyper-proficient light cutting through dark days. Welcome to your new favourite album!
- Kieran Ruffles.