Listen: Best Kind Of Lost — Joshua Idehen

Following on last year’s gospel-tinged [Don’t You Give Up On Me], long-time BlackPlastic fav Joshua Idehen has unveiled new single Best Kind Of Lost.

Taken from Idehen’s forthcoming mixtape, Learn To Swim, Best Kind Of Lost sees Joshua deliver laid-back vocals that ride skippy beats and a warm, looping melodic refrain. The result has a hazy, easy-going feeling the befits the song’s inspiration:

“This song's about a really nice day I spent with my partner that ended with us running from the police cuz we were a little too happy at an illegal forest rave. I sort of challenged myself to write something about a day I was happy, no twist, no negative, and this was the answer.”

I love the sense of joy here on Best Kind Of Lost, and how Idehen has created a song free of anxiety that is unmistakably the product of contemporary multi-cultral Britain.

Check out Best Kind Of Lost below, and look out for the mixtape, Learn To Swim, out 21 April.

Listen: Don't You Give Up On Me — Joshua Idehen

A long-term favourite of mine, British-born Nigerian Joshua Idehen is back, but this time with his debut release as a solo project.

When I first heard Don’t You Give Up On Me, I didn’t know it was by Idehen, an artist whose work I am very familiar with. All the same, the emotive, honest and soulful performance caught my attention. Idehen’s vocal performance provides a grounded honesty — an authentic and poetic flow that could only come from British streets. The gospel chorus that gives the song its chorus surrounds the listener in a calming determination and optimism.

Idehen’s work has always struck an emotional chord for me — thoughtful and compassionate, modern yet timeless. The importance of compassion, for each other and for ourselves, was clearly on Josh’s mind when he wrote this piece, as he explains:

“This was the first beat Ludvig (the producer) sent me, and I pretty much finished the lyrics by that day’s end. It’s a poem about second chances and forgiving yourself. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel people are too quick with each other these days: I know I’ve been guilty of it at times. This is a plea for a bit more patience with each other, and for me to be a bit more patient with myself.”

Let’s all have a bit more compassion, for each other, and for ourselves.

Listen: Hostiles - Benin City feat. Eklipse

Long standing BlackPlastic.co.uk favourites Benin City are back, with a song that carries and important message in deeply challenging times.

Usually I would write something about the artist, the song, and what it makes me feel. In this instance, I think it is much better to let the music, and the artist, speak for itself. The words that follow in this post are those of Benin City.

It was already a painful year, with the Tories, with Covid, with Windrush, with Boris.

This year alone, our aunts have been spat on, our uncles knelt on, our elders deported, our brothers left to the mercy of COVID. George Floyd is the latest casualty in this eternal war against black people’s right to exist, to work, to be happy, to love as we love.

Trust, we’re exhausted, we’re watching the news and despairing, we’re tired, and we’re angry.

We’ve been emboldened by the protests, in the US and globally, even in the face of rampant police aggression. We’re a band, what we do best is music, so we’re putting this song out, Hostiles is our attempt to put our emotions to art in these shiitake-mushroom times.

All proceeds of the track will go to BLM UK, so we’d encourage you to buy it from our Bandcamp, though it’ll be available to stream from everywhere else too. Also, we’ve made a collective donation as well, and other donations to These Walls Must Fall (https://detention.org.uk/) BFTA collective (https://cash.app/$btfacollective) and Black Minds Matter (https://www.blackmindsmatteruk.com/).

If you can, donate too, or read/share this resource on other charities to donate to and articles compiled by It’s Nice That (https://www.itsnicethat.com/news/resources-supporting-black-lives-matter-movement-creative-industry-010620).

Take care of each other and yourselves. We are so much more to this.

Love is the law Unclench Your Jaw Wash Your Paws

Tom, Shanaz, Josh

#blacklivesmatter #blacktranslivesmatter

It was already a painful year, with the Tories, with Covid, with Windrush, with Boris. This year alone, our aunts have been spat on, our uncles knelt on, our elders deported, our brothers left to the mercy of COVID.

Listen: Watchu Saying - Hugh feat. Jylda

We are all a little lucky, because Watchu Saying is the third release we have had this year from Hugh, the collaborative project between Andy Highmore, Joshua Idehen and Martin Kolarides.

Watchu Saying gradually unfolds in a particularly distinct way - initially riding in on a weird wave of distortion, Idehen and Jylda’s vocals pad along on a gentle bed of electronics before jumping into the kind of cyclical chorus that feels as though it has no beginning and no end. This track feels like it gives lots of airtime to Kolarides’ guitar work, which initially delicately weaves its way around the bed of the track before becoming a focal point in the second chorus. This is a track that feels a little disorientating, but at the same time that trademark Hugh warmth feels like a musical embrace.

Whilst this is Hugh’s latest song, it’s actually one of the oldest that Idehen and Highmore have written together. Idehen’s inspiration for the lyrics came as he wrote a love song based on Star Wars after he read an old novel that is no longer considered part of the official canon. The line “You are the X-Wing, and I am the Y” stuck out, and ultimately Watchu Saying was the result.

Listen: Sense To You - Hugh feat. Bonjay

Long standing BlackPlastic favourites, Joshua Idehen’s Hugh are back with their second song of 2019 in the form of Sense To You. Together with guitarist Martin Kolarides, producer Andy Highmore and Canadian R&B duo Bonjay, Idehen has turned in another one of his trademark deep and emotionally vulnerable electronic soul joints.

If you haven’t heard Hugh before, I suggest you rectify that quickly... Sense To You have the same sense of warm I often experience in the music of Hugh - the effect is like getting a hug from a friend. Bonjay’s Alanna Stuart became involved after meeting Joshua online, him having been a big fan of Bonjay’s music. When the pair said they would be in London, a collaboration seemed obvious, Joshua describing Alanna as “One of the most fun, inspiring and encouraging people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and working with”.

The song describes the experience of a low-key click with someone - no big drama, but something that just feels right. Describing the track, Joshua says:

“Sometimes you just know. You go out, for a drink, with mates, not really looking, and you lock eyes with someone, and the words you share aren’t particularly clever, or funny, or deep, but everything clicks, and before you know it, she nods towards the exit and you’re saying goodbye to your friends.”

Check out Sense To You below.