Soul Folk featuring Will Hammond Jr.

How to describe this? Hmm. Probably my best set is to say that its contemporary, bang on C21 but without being crass mainstream R&B. Stylistically it is bold, of that I have no doubt. The beats in places are very hip-hop and urban but almost rootsy too. The songs are firmly rooted in the soil of Neo-Soul, and have an awareness of where music has been, and points towards where it is heading. The passion and starkness of Van Hunt, P.J. Morton and Seven can be felt, and the subtlety and soulfulness of the greats can also be found. The first handful of songs is rather mechanical and urban yet has more depth than you would expect. They’re engaging and different and the eerie – almost early 80s synth pop feel of – “Spaces And places” may not be everyone’s cup of tea – let alone the purists, but artistically there is a lot of interesting texture. This shows that these guys are not just out to tread the same old tired R&B path.

Saying that, I do admit a preference for the more traditional soulful numbers, and there are at least 4 songs on here which really impress me, and on the day I heard them for the first time it was warm and sunny – a perfect match for the tracks that I am about to highlight for you. “No Surprise” is just sublime, it really is. The opening birdsong and guitar, baseline and dreamy keys work extremely well together, and comparisons with Van Hunt have to be made. The song is lovely and positive, and is definitely one to savour on these lengthening days. Fans of jazzier vibes will appreciate “Jaded” very much I suspect. The crashing cymbals and contemplative piano and dreamy vibes are almost at loggerheads but are perfectly engulfing the vocals. This is melancholy set to music, a moment of daydream and half-realization with a healthy hint of contentedness.

The most commercial radio cut has to be “Breakdown” which cleverly interpolates Stevie Wonder’s wonderful synth bridge from his classic “Superwoman”. This is handled with complete reverence and subtlety. No cack-handed Puff Diddley sampling work here! The chaps turn their talents to an acoustic Latin sound with “Your Love” which, again, is perfect for the warmer temperatures. Their cover of Stevie’s “Golden Lady” also nods towards a classic 70s sound. I suspect that Mr. Wonder’s unique style and approach is one that Soul Folk and Will Hammond can hook up with. My final choice is the excellent 80s-ish jam, “Goodbye” which is essential. I think that if you loved Cognac’s “Blast Off” as much as I did, then this will be for you! Superb. Please check these tracks out as I know you’ll be impressed.

- Barry Towler

When it comes to music, I'm a less is more type of guy. That's probably a function of growing up in the 1970s at the height of the LP era. Vinyl long play records contained 10 or 11 songs. That's about all a long play vinyl record could hold. Truth be told, 10 songs averaging between four and five minutes pushed up the limits of the attention spans of most music fans. Besides, most artists struggle to crank out four or five decent songs, which made the classics such as Marvin Gaye's What's Going On or Michael Jackson's Thriller all the more special. It was an event when artists such as Stevie Wonder or Prince dropped double-albums such as Songs in the Key of Life or 1999. Both artists had to create music that justified the extra cost consumers purchasing it would have to plank down.
Compact discs hold twice as much music as a vinyl LP, and big box stores such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy charge twice as much for them. That might explain why most artists feel the need to stuff 70 minutes worth of music onto those small discs. Maybe artists and music companies believe fans will feel better about planking down $17 if they get 15 or 20 songs. The problem is most music fans don't want to listen to 20 songs, especially since most artists still make four or five good ones.
That's why alarm bells went off when I flipped over To Be Continued by Soul Folk featuring Will Hammond, Jr. and saw that the CD contained 17 tracks. I put the CD in fearing that it would be the musical equivalent of interstate driving - miles of nothing interrupted by the occasional tourist attraction, leaving the listener to exclaim "are we there yet?" Boy, was I wrong! A measure of how good an album To Be Continued is that Will could have made two records out of the first and second halves of the album, and they'd both be excellent.
One thing that makes To Be Continued a work that has a very good chance of holding the listener's interest is the album's pace. To Be Continued doesn't overwhelm the listener with track after track of up-tempo songs, nor does the record fall into a mid-tempo groove that all to easily becomes a rut. A mid-tempo groove such as "Sunday in the Park" is followed by the frenetically, pulsing techno inspired jam "Beautiful." The listener falls into a mournful mood while listening to "Jaded," a slow, acoustic jazzy ballad, only to be aroused by the whirring violins in the song "Venus Returns."
The sparse acoustic guitar that complements Hammond's tenor on "1979" gets followed up by the ultra-funky neo-soul and hip-hop fusion of "When It Rains," one of many high points on To Be Continued. The breezy "Your Love" and a lovely version of Stevie Wonder's "Golden Lady" follow that song.
To Be Continued by Soul Folk featuring Will Hammond, Jr. draws on jazz, hip-hop, techno, folk to create 17 compelling tracks that surprise and hold the listener's interest. Highly recommended. - Howard Dukes/Soultracks

"Summertime soul from multi-talented San Francisco
performer Soul Folk, formerly of Midnight Voices.
From the first beautiful keys of "Life Goes On", you
can feel you're in for something special. Pour the
Malibu, this might take awhile." - Toph One/XLR8R Magazine

Will Hammond, Jr. and Soul Folk: To Be Continued... -- This CD checked in at a normally overweight 17 tracks. However, there is little fat. There are several radio-ready tracks on To Be Continued, including "When It Rains" and a nice remake of "Golden Lady," but nobody would call any of the album tracks on this record "filler." HD - SoulTracks