PIXTAPE is a sonic tale. The Blues Project invites select artists to take us on a journey into their musical mind-frame. A playlist of the music they gravitate to, that shapes them, the music that soundtracks their lives. This week, Nigerian Alternative Soul emerging artist, AYLØ shares his picks.
Intuitive, introspective, and sonically minded are words that immediately spring to mind when thinking about Nigerian Afro-soul artist, AYLØ. He has a consciousness for producing well-fashioned tracks underpinned by his silky vocals, relatable lyricism, and cinematic visual offerings. AYLØ harnesses the beauty of unapologetic honesty to make his musical offerings what they are.
Forging his own lane in the world of music, AYLØ recently released his debut album, and third full-length project, ‘For Good Reasons’. The highly anticipated 10-track album follows his 2020 ‘Clairsentience’ EP, and the acclaimed 2019 ‘dnt’dlt’ mixtape. It was created during a period of immense change for the rapper, producer, and songwriter after moving back to Nigeria in 2017. Taking us through a variety of stories, and encapsulating the process of losing and finding himself during that period of time.
Within the first few seconds of the album, we are introduced to AYLØ’s introspective storytelling and soulful vocals – and with each of the tracks, listeners can take a look into the window of his life, whether that be of hazy brown-liquor nights as portrayed by the Wasalu-produced focus track, ‘Tekkers,’; or the aspirational ‘Detonate,’ with its syncopated beats all underpinned within AYLØ and Zirra’s velvety flow. Taking us through a myriad of feels as the project develops, each song echoes its own unique sentiment (yet plays an important part in the story as a whole) and is laced with AYLØ’s own amalgamation of sound.
AYLØs PIXTAPE selections show the eclecticism of his sound, and how all these different influences amalgamate into the genre-fluid sound we’ve come to appreciate in his music.
Take a listen to his recent album, ‘For Good Reasons’, and watch his COLORSxSession out this week.
Pick to wake up to: ‘No Stress’ – Wizkid
What I listen to obviously changes, and I don’t even think I’m waking up to listen to music these days but if I did it would be this song. It’s just very smooth and catchy, a good way to set the tone I’d say.
Pick to party to: ‘FYN’ – Rema
Another smooth pick. I like softer sounding records you can still bump to, it reminds me of growing up, when things were calmer. Don’t get me wrong I love Amapiano, so if there’s no Rema, you can definitely give me some Kabza de Small.
Pick for your Sunday mornings: ‘The House Is Burning’ (Album) – Isaiah Rashad
He’s one of my favourite artists ever. I like a lil’ thump in it, but more white wine than Hennessy if that makes any sense, so this comes with a reasonable amount of bass for you to feel it in your soul, but not enough to crack the windows.
Pick for healing: ’Flight’ – Monte Booker
Very big on production and producers and instrumentalists. He’s one of my favourite producers of all time, and this particular song just takes me back to a place where I think, musically, I was evolving at an alarming rate (now that I look back), and it was all because of the music I was being introduced to. It gave me a lot of confidence to enjoy my experimentations so when I’m in a place of doubt, or just general bad funk, its either this or Burna Boy.
Pick to romance to: ‘HEAT’ (From the album GOLD) – Le Mav & Tay Iwar
Tay Iwar and Le Mav did something that just cannot be undone.
Pick for self-care: ‘Last Last’ – Burna Boy
I pretty much love most of Burna’s music, and it’s one of the things that helps me get through my days especially when I’m looking for some of that raw champion energy. This one change depending on my favourite Burna Boy track at the time.
Pick for creative inspiration: ‘Ungrateful’ – Central Cee
I’m very biased to UK artists because I learned a lot living there for a bit. So, really, it’s like nostalgic whenever I hear someone with certain rap techniques going on certain beats. I feel like there’s a lot of experimentation going on everywhere, to be honest, but there’s just something about the production of that song mixed with what he was saying and how it made me feel. Goosebumps.
Pick for the long drive: ‘Zombie’ – Fela Kuti
Nobody makes songs this long anymore. This one is just 12 or so minutes, Fela would compose a 48-minute piece like it was nothing. Legend.
Pick you play when no one else is around: ‘2L84U’ – Submotion Orchestra
I don’t even think this song is available on streaming platforms, I don’t know why. They dropped a project, and this song is only available on SoundCloud, but it’s my favourite from them, ever. That sucks sometimes trying to share it with people, but I remember and then I go on SoundCloud, which I don’t use as much as Spotify or Apple music anymore. It’s such a jazzy record, very timeless. It’s one of those records I think you won’t be able to tell what year it was made even 50/60 years from now.
Pick you’d sing to save your life ‘cause you know all the lyrics: ‘Jack’ – Nasty C
On the surface it sounds like he’s just bragging, but listen deeply, this is one of those “I’m never going back” records, “I’ve worked hard, I’m beyond blessed and I’m grateful”. I feel like I tap into messages a lot, and it feels like I wrote it myself when I’m rapping along. Also, just manifesting it as well as relating to it on my own level. No going back.
Pick for a no-skip listening session: ‘Colourway’ – Destin Conrad
It’s just a beautiful blend of knocking kicks, bright hi hats, melodic chords, and soft vocals. I particularly like this project because, although its cohesive from top to bottom, the way it’s arranged allows you to playlist each song for a different mood or listen to it all together and that’s just amazing. I grew up on albums and just projects so I love when I can hear the intention shine through in the artist’s work, as opposed to maybe just a collection of songs put together for the sake of putting songs together and calling it a project.
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Listen to AYLØ’s new album, ‘For Good Reasons‘ out now on all platforms.
