Album Review: Samantha "Samiam Montolla" Hinds - MADE HER

MADE HER - I want you to look at the image carefully. She MADE HER.

I feel like most independent artists can relate to this, especially the ones that refuse the "popular" route of going through big label companies. Self-made songstress and Montreal dancer Samantha "Samiam" Hinds is a self-made artist.

As I listen to the first track 'WHERE IS THE TOP' images of the recording studio flash in my mind. The playful banter over the track begins as she improvises ad-libs of some of her own vocals on the track.

I can almost see the smile on her face as the music moves and inspires her one beat at a time. Then you hear her... "Where is the top?"

This is as appropriate a beginning as any. People who belong to the artistic community constantly face this dichotomy of knowing where the top is. The 'top' can be defined as success. It can also be defined as that point at which you will arrive and can go no further. But listen closely, "inter-galactic funk we so high!"

There is no top. Not the message being sent from this songstress. The galaxy as we know it has no limits, and therefore neither do you as an artist. The beat gets me too. It has this synchronicity of being both very 21st century modern, and sounding like a 1980's funky beat that reminds me of the psychedelic colours of TV shows and music videos at the time.

That's only the first track!

Hinds has a unique and diverse voice, she is her own voice, but I can't help but wonder how much of an influence Lauryn Hill, Aretha Franklin and Patti Labelle had on her style? This Funk flavour mixed with  RnB, throwing in a dash of Jazz and Blues. A melting pot of music for all ages. Her music brings me back to Jamaica. My dad would probably play this on his Bose on repeat for a few days over the weekend.

'THE FABRIC', "Why the caged bird sings" pelts through the speakers... You hear her political side coming out. "Picking cotton is the fabric of our lives!" Sends chills down my spine. Her choice of words. The way she enunciates them. Hinds becomes a surgeon dissecting your mind and inserting truth.

The album wraps up nicely with 'SHOW YA LIGHT' Which has that traditional feel with all the vocals, kind of scatting in the background grooving with that baseline. If I was to direct the video, it would be a gritty basement party set in the 1970's afros and bright colours with lovers slow dancing to the new revolution.

Hips swinging left to right.

Mischievous smiles.

All around good times.

"Keep it burning y'all..."

Photo by: Mariel Rosenblüth

Samantha "Samiam Monotolla" Hinds
For more information and bookings, contact her on facebook.

I hope you appreciated the read.

I appreciate you reading.

Warmest Regards

See you on the other side

--

Kym Dominique-Ferguson

The Jamhaitianadian

Album Review: Lillian Allen - ANXIETY

This is a review I did for Litlive.ca in 2013.


ANXIETY – expresses the Anxiety of the population of Earth, from 2012 – 2013

Lilliann Allen is the godmother of dub lyricism, with an ability to transport minds through portals created with the aid of looping effects, onomatopoeia and her voice. I am of Jamaican and Haitian origin, and have experienced my cultural roots up front and personal. Ms Allen takes me right back to them.

The album’s title track took me on a journey to the end of my childhood back to the Kumina* circle, where drums and rhythmic voices could hypnotize practitioners into trances.  Then my heart starts pounding, the world seems that much smaller, and I experience vividly the anxiety she speaks of.

Between the student strike that lasted the better part of a year, the shootings in movie cinemas, elementary schools, she irrevocably captures the feelings many have had about the last and the upcoming year. Stating “We’re all anxious for a change, transformation…” she connects the dots between continents, islands, miles of land and seawater. It’s as if she speaks in the voice of our world.

Then with the track BLACK VOICE, she jumps into an eighty-five Delorean and journeys back to music I used to hear as a child: Third World, Bob Marley when he was still with the Wailers, and many other artists that I have naively forgotten. The music has your head bobbing, feeling like you’re on a natural high induced only by voices.

The strongest tracks are those which feature looping effects more prominently. I am not sure Allen is making us of the same particular gadget, but I have seen the likes of poet Moe Clark using a looping pedal to make her performances pop. The layering and repetition of sound and voice mimics the myriad repetitious voices of mass media, but also warms my soul— and terrifies me to my core.

I keep hearing her interlude saying “We anxious for redressed equality and opportunities…” and it makes me wonder, am I equal? Do I have opportunities? And then I listen some more…

Photo courtesy of: Marva Jackson Lord

Lillian Allen
Bookings and more information: www.lillianallen.ca

I hope you appreciated the read.

I appreciate you reading.

Warmest Regards

See you on the other side

--

Kym Dominique-Ferguson

The Jamhaitianadian

 *Kumina is an Afro-Jamaican religion influenced mainly by the Bantu peoples from the Congo-Angola area. Kumina refers to both a religion and dance.