Good morning dear friends. We hope you’re doing well despite the climate of democratic apocalypse. To tell you everything, a good part of the Mailtape crew lives in France, where each week brings its share of increasingly appalling news; but where joyful mobilizations also offer a saving and promising hope. All over the world, resistance to the stinking far right and deadly capitalism is growing, even winning victories (big up Brazil, Serbia, USA, Hungary,…). It’s far from perfect, there’s still a lot of work to be done, but it gives us strength!

Well, in all this tumult, it’s important not to forget ourselves, to examine the role of “I,” to add nuance to it, and to question our emotions. Luckily, the genre that seems best suited for this type of exercise is R&B, and it’s precisely in this area that our guest of the day excels.

Keysuna is an artist with a background in dance, and you can feel it undeniably in her excellent debut album. It’s not just R&B; it’s also a Hip-hop groove that makes you dance irresistibly and a sunny soul that resonates with our deepest feelings. Bassist by training, the artist deliver with roundness and voluptuousness a modern vision of themes dear to the genre: love, relationships, and the emotional turmoil that tears at our hearts. Here is her selection that includes three remarkable tracks that are primarily focused on the “I,” offering the perfect opportunity to explore different shades of ego trip, introspection, and personal philosophies.

Guest’s selection

Tierra Whack - Wiggidy Whack

Keysuna: “ Tierra Whack is one of the figures in the current hip-hop scene who influences me the most! Her flows are unique, and the way she uses her voice is so creative. She released an album in June that blew me away: it’s pure rap, verses and punchlines upon punchlines. Her writing is so vivid, funny, and incisive… This track in particular really resonated with me. So much so that I started listening to it on repeat for weeks, trying to reproduce her intentions and delivery exactly. I felt like I was 11 years old again! (Back then, when I didn’t speak a word of English, I was learning the verses by heart from the few hip-hop tracks I’d downloaded onto an iPod). ”

Eliza - Everywhere I’ll ever be

Keysuna: “ One of the tracks I’ve listened to the most this year, from an album released in 2022. Eliza is a London-based singer-songwriter. Her music is captivating and feels like meditation to me: her tracks are quite long, this one is over six minutes; you don’t really know where the verses and chorus end… and yet everything flows together so harmoniously and naturally. Her lyrics are rooted in the present; she shares feelings and advocates a way of life that values ​​love, the present moment, and letting go. All of this is set against such a clean production, with a simple, hypnotic bassline. Some might say her voice is mixed too low, but that’s what I love most about her. I love it when artists offer unconventional mixes, especially these days, when all the mixes and masters are so sterile. She is generally an artist who is committed to offering a positive but realistic message about the world; her sincerity and simplicity inspire me enormously. ”

Donny Hathaway - Misty

Keysuna: “ Wow… Donny Hathaway, one of my favorite singers, takes a jazz standard and keeps literally only the lyrics! The chords resemble those of a blues song, his vocal placement is immeasurable, inimitable, and so sincere, you can’t tell if he’s speaking or singing. The arrangement is impeccable, and the nuances are perfectly placed… He takes a completely different approach by playing a ballad (a very slow, usually gentle piece) with such intensity, such power… it’s just so cool. I don’t really know how to explain it, but his voice touches something inside me that transcends me and makes me fall even more in love with music. Honestly, if I could go back in time, I’d risk my life to see this song performed live! ”

Curator’s selection

Keysuna – Masks

Anto: “ I love this song. It’s the opening track of the album, and I think it sets the tone perfectly. It’s instrumental, delicate, and graceful, yet also groovy. It blends various influences and speaks to who we are both inside and out. You don’t necessarily expect that when you hear this greasy double bass at the beginning, the violins, the clarinet… But the fusion of classical and contemporary music is very successful. The two combine throughout the track in a delightful harmony, like a dance between two sides of the same coin, between a public facet and a more intimate one… I’ll let you discover the rest of the album; you’ll find a series of simply delightful songs. ”

Iman Europe – Ego death

Anto: “ Here, the message is perhaps a little less subtle. We’re witnessing an internal struggle. The ego takes up too much space, it makes you do stupid things, so it gets destroyed. I’m not entirely convinced by the darkness that pervades this track, by the resolution of the “problem” through violence, but the theme resonates with me deeply. Is the ego necessarily a malevolent entity that systematically seeks to drag us into bottomless abysses? I don’t know. In any case, I like this intricate, slightly trippy instrumental, like the soundtrack to a psychedelic journey, where madness can seize us at any moment. “

Womack Sisters – Monster

Anto: “ Believe it or not, despite their prestigious heritage, I’d never heard the Womack Sisters sing before. They released a stunning album a few weeks ago, and I couldn’t resist including an excerpt in this selection to introduce you (if, like me, you’ve never heard it) to the voices of these three women. In the purest blaxploitation tradition, they deliver an intense soul sound, supported by impeccable arrangements. There’s something magical about the combination of their voices something timeless and never out of style. ”

Anna Kova – Jane Doe (freestyle #60)

Anto: “ “John Doe” and “Jane Doe” is a freestyle series by the “75e session” collective proposed in the mid-2010s. The concept: a rapper, male or female, filmed facing the camera, half-shot, showing only their mouth, + a beat, and boom! Freestyle. There were some great discoveries among them, including this little gem which – despite the somewhat mediocre sound quality, sorry – instantly captivated me. Even today, I have a special connection to this track; it’s always playing on my stereo or in my headphones, like an old friend I occasionally have coffee with. I particularly love the blend of rap and singing. When it’s done like this, with such ease and virtuosity, it’s simply wonderful. “

That’s all for today! Thanks very much to Keysuna for the selection, thanks to Noémie for the illustration, thanks to Benjamin for the linking and thanks to Maxime for the great technical work! Mailtape, the collective journey, awaits you next week for new adventures! If you want to join us, check your emails, we explain how to do it. Or send us a message ;)