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It's the stuff dreams are made of - in 1998 Dwele
(pronounced Dwell-ay) made a cassette of his music but only ran off 100
copies, worrying he wouldn't be able to sell them. The entire run sold out
in a week, and the cassette is still being talked about and sold as a
bootleg on the internet. Now Virgin have sensibly snapped him up and are
releasing Subject, a newly produced set of material.
Dwele's music caused such excitement because of its
fresh sound, combining elements of the two currently most popular genres
(hip-hop and R&B), and giving them a new twist with a soulful and '70s vibe.
Add to this Dwele's accomplised songwriting and smooth voice and the reasons
for the net-buzz become clear.
That smooth voice is showcased at its purest on Kick
Out Of You, surrounded by electric piano (the most common instrument on the
album), gentle double bass, and a jazzy fuzzed up hi-hat loop.
Arrangement-wise, this is one of the simpler tracks on the album, but it
shows off Dwele's tune-smith abilities.
If you're looking for something more complex, then the
title track Subject is the place to go. Beginning with a string arpeggio
reminiscent of those found under many recent rap records, it segues into an
immensely impressive chorus. The hummable chorus flows with its gentle
record static effects, ticking clock, and trickling bells.
This effective combining of sounds is a theme running
through the best parts of the album, including Money Don't Mean A Thing - a
track surely worthy of a single release. The strings and muddy sounds lie
underneath and clash with the mid-tempo guitar loop, giving this number a
unique feel.
Such clashes illustrate another attractive element of
Dwele's approach. In the same way that hip-hop and R&B play loose with their
rhythms and loops, so Subject takes elements of soul and jazz and fuzzes
them up or puts them slightly out of time, creating fresh sounding
arrangements.
Other fresh sounding tracks that beg for attention on
Subject are the unusually structured and hip-hop rhythm driven Lady at
Mahogany, the tuneful opening track Truth (where Dwele's not insignificant
lyric-writing skills come to the fore), and Possible - where an electric
piano metamorphoses into a concert grand during the chorus.
Because the soul sound is the strongest common thread
here, Dwele has been touted as nu-soul. Indeed anyone who really dislikes
soul and mellow electric piano isn't going to enjoy Subject. And those that
find smooth riffing vocals irritating and prefer traditional pop melodies,
won't bond with this Detroit song-writer's output.
But what makes Subject exciting is that it could be
called "nu-R&B" as much as it could be called nu-soul. And that's what makes
it seem like a visionary extension of much current chart output. It has the
potential for turning a generation of R&B fans into soul fans without them
even realizing it.
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