- Luxe, throwback street soul and suave breakbeat from a promising artist on an equally promising label.
- Since its landmark compilation earlier this year, London label Scenic Route—run by former RA staffer Theo Fabunmi-Stone and Jon Phonics—has taken a turn towards strains of street soul, a syncretic genre that popped up in late-'80s London as a svelte combination of house, hip-hop, R&B and, of course, soul. Take To The Sky, whose title track first appeared on that various artists album, plots a direct throughline back to that era, touching on everything from Soul Connection to Shut Up And Dance. It's unabashedly retro, but it's also undeniably brilliant, as J. Caesar (with help from Z Lovecraft) updates the sound with glimpses of the UK dance music underground and smooth-as-butter hooks.
If I had to pinpoint a moment that Take To The Sky really got me, it would be the first time I heard that emphatic, baritone "yes!" sample land just off beat of the kick drum in "I Told You." The whole thing is wonderful—vocals autotuned to an iridescent sheen and a hypnotic melody—but that sample adds a certain oomph that transports the track from pleasant R&B to gunfingers anthem. The title track, which deserves its re-airing here, is slippery but controlled, a chill party anthem with a whispery vocal and old-school breaks. That one connects nicely into "Lost In Space," its liquid drum & bass counterpart. This is where things get interesting: it's as floaty as the lyrics describe, and the ornate pads and shards of breakbeats make it feel like a long-lost LTJ Bukem track.
Things round off with the jazzier "Give Me To The Night," maybe the most conventional track on the EP, and also the catchiest. This kind of in-between music, a bit R&B, a bit jungle, a bit house, is historically hard to pull off, with many of the best examples a distant memory. With Take To The Sky, J. Caesar and Scenic Route nail the hybrid with a record that exists not only in conversation with street soul history but the sounds of the streets in 2022, too.
Tracklist01. I Told You feat. Yagamoto
02. Take To The Sky
03. Lost In Space
04. Give Me To The Night