Loosies Vol. 2
Artwork by Kieron Boothe
Back for round two, The Loosies Project provide yet another compilation of their incredible creativity and their ability to cohesively unite a broad and diverse range of musicians. Opening with Joey Mexxx’s self-produced ‘Guide My Way’, he creates a vast landscape with his sporadically-percussive, dark and sweeping instrumental, allowing his spoken word to take your attention.
Perfectly setting the scene for musician/poet Caleb Femi and engineer/producer Josette Joseph to come in with their ethereal track ‘BLK AF1 SEASON’, holding a simple, yet discomforting production from Josette. Navigating their way through the track with a nonchalant, held-back tone, the pair create a dark dystopian atmosphere, holding you in their nightmares before a piano-led outro brings some light back in.
Moving through this tapestry of vast feeling and sound, Lo-Wu’s instrumental on, ‘Free’ provides us with some laid-back, funk-inspired production that manages to keep up the pace alongside DIPS’ opening verse. Moving into the hook, Ayeisha Raquel’s warm harmonies bring about the perfect atmosphere for TINYMAN to lay down his more playful verse, moving into a neo-soul bridge propped up with vocals from K The Infinite before moving into Eklipse’s free-flowing outro.
Retreating to a more straight-forward interlude in ‘Backpacks x Lasers’, GeeFree provides his clever lyricism over fluid-synths and calm percussion, bringing us back down to Earth before Ella Frank and Intalekt take us into the ethereal, ‘Space’. Their harmonised introduction leads into Ella’s soulful verse, before heading back to the distinctive melody of the hook, sampling exerts of Gorillaz ‘Feel Good Inc.’. This track holds such an interesting tone with Intalekt on production, displaying the wide range of talents and styles within The Loosies Project.
Continuing with a mellow-tone, Richie Saps and Dani Sofiya return on ‘Palm Reader’, perfectly complimenting each other’s styles. Weaving in and out of one another, their melodies bring further life to the instrumental with Richie’s melodic, spoken word and Dani’s tender but soulful vocals. Lulling us into the calm, Seb Chedick’s production for, ‘Inside (Doomsday)’ creates the perfect space for Xolomon to lay out her distinctive voice within her effortless harmonies before Dualeh Oke begins to up the energy levels on ‘Signs’. The poetic-lyricism and confident melody of his flow makes for an intriguing sound.
Heading into the penultimate track, ‘Tales Of A Lost Man’ K The Infinite offers his delicate, singular vocals over the optimistic, calm-funk instrumental from R Kay before Udo takes a minute of our time for his cleverly-worded, off-beat verse. Closing out their second volume of the project, Shumba Maasai provides an abundance of energy on ‘AK Suttin’ Botswana Remix’, enlisting the help of TO$$, Big Duce, Owie and MiZee. The project continues to prove the eclectic mix of artists running away with the underground scene bubbling beneath the surface, the DIY musicians continue to create to their usual standards, regardless of the circumstances.