Charlie A - Red Mary Janes

Hear The Track Here

Flushed, no doubt, with the heady euphoria brought on by big mentionage in the 2009 Stevies, London's very own Charlie A starts off the new year with determination, coming up with something I would never expected from him. This musician, remember, is justly famed for his simple, elegant and often beautiful film soundtracks - and I don't get to write beautiful and film soundtracks in the same sentence very often. Nonetheless, Charlie has found some modicum of fame in his musical path, and rightly so but not, definitely, absolutely not ever approach something as (makes quote sign) normal as hip hop. Fairly peeled me eyeballs out of my head when I saw the Parental Advisory attached to this track. Not little, lovable ol' Charlie A surely?

'Latte D Kyde asked me to produce a track for her' Charlie explains on his page. Mind you, I'd forgotten that little nugget of truth by the time I started actively listening to the track and I must admit to surprise; both at Charlie's smooth jazzy approach and the class vocal from Ms Kyde. According to the billing its Alternative hip hop but in my books this is jazzy blues and very classy jazzy blues at that. On that score the only thing that would have made this track any better on the ears would have been a nice, cutting brass section but that's just me being my usual greedy pig self and wanting it all in one dose.

Nonetheless, I found myself checking further into the aromatically named Latte D Kyde at her site and that should go some way to telling you how much she impressed me. She has a great voice, one which comes out and puts itself right in your face; the tracks on her site are much more the hip hop I would have expected. Nonetheless it's the combination of Charlie's musical and production skill and her delivery of the vocal that really makes the most lasting impression. It's a smoking song into the bargain and - as far as I can see - there is only one reference to the F word in the whole piece and that, unfortunately, may put some people off. There again, given the lyrical content, maybe it IS a smoking song about smoking? (Ed: Now I'M confused and I think you've been doing some of that too...)

Excellent jazzy/bluesy hiphop workout. Highly Recommended.