The ‘best R&B album since at least House Of Balloons’, was the verdict on Dawuna’s debut Glass Lit Dream. In between, two further LPs were released: the actually rather good Naya, with its D’Angelo-esque touches, and Southside Bottoms, which, however, was recorded before Glass Lit Dream and should therefore be left without any further description here.
African Family Laptop Musick is a modest personal ‘offering’, before there’s ‘something big’ again, according to the Baltimore-based musician. Another new album is already in the pipeline, set for release in November. Aha! The off-the-cuff effort before the big one, the well-thought-out one, the thoroughly produced one – that’s bound to prick up the ears of anyone who’s ever experienced the captivating, light-footed and, ultimately, all the more catchy power of a rough sketch.
Dawuna recorded the album using a 2013 MacBook Pro and a small synthesiser. It lives up to every expectation a fan of lo-fi R&B could possibly have. There’s no pomp, no rousing build-ups; instead, there’s intimacy created by private snippets of sound and melodies that seem to spring to life on the spur of the moment. You understand them straight away, but you can’t quite commit them to memory. As everyone knows, that’s the very best sign of music that prefers to touch you deeply rather than make a grand show of itself. Are there any criticisms? Yes. The chipmunk-style high-pitched vocals do get a bit annoying after a while; and after five listens, the sparse arrangement has run its course for now – you find yourself wishing for more soul, more gospel to balance things out. Perhaps that’ll be on the announced Love’s Arp. In the end, though – and this is also true – it’s nicer today to lose yourself in Endless than in Blonde.
