aaamusic | On 17, Dec 2012

Sometimes when I really take a step back and look at the music that is popular on the airwaves and the ipods, and take a good look at the music that I listen to personally, it blows my mind when I realise that the perpetuation of the emotive sentiment and musical formality of Soul music just doesn’t rank high on most artist’s to-do lists. As a musical movement and style, it channels a force that no other genre can imitate. A force that is overwhelmingly, well, soulful. So it’s fantastic to find that at least someone loves that aesthetic enough to carry the torch in today’s musical climate.
Miss Terry Blue are quite the mish-mash of a musical grouping, perhaps a factor that would explain their eclectic approach to music. Lead vocalist Isabella came from a classical operatic background in Germany to bring the group together in February 2010. Against the backdrop of the musical gravity well that is London, she met and recruited talent from around the world, with musicians hailing from Russia, France, Italy, Germany and the UK, forming such a formidable cosmopolitan aesthetic that few can contest it. But how does that come through in their music?
Well, they’ve offered up their new single ‘Hush’. Opening with velvety piano chords and funky percussive muted guitar, the ghostly silk of Isabella’s voice quavers across the smooth breadth of the track. The soulful sleekness is permeating, but not until the bass drum kicks in do you feel the rhythmic power of the whole thing; the steady bass pulse intertwines with hither-thither golden brass coils to create a fluid and dynamic atmosphere that is not quite drifting, not quite toe-tapping. Terrific funky guitar raking and shivering cymbal serpentines erupt into a bombastic chorus, followed by a psychedelic ascension through the superb combination of delay trickery and muted guitar, while the vocals echo over. Overall it’s a very fun track, with its own unique character that paints a picture of a scene that is really beautiful, elegant, and undersubscribed. While Isabella’s voice is wonderful, I couldn’t help but feel that the lyrics themselves, or rather, the rhythmic quality of the lyrics was in some way anathemic and perpendicular to the rest of the track, it’s quite amazing how well all of the composite music elements converge and blend, creating an authentic soul vibe with stomping indie twist.

★★★★★

Matt Fellows
Twitter: xMattFellowsx