Adeline - "[ad-uh-leen]"
(Own distribution, since 9th of November)

The joke with the escort girl you have to resist now: Escort is the Nu-Disco band from Brooklyn's Clinton Hill neighborhood, in which Adeline Michèle is working as a singer - despite recurring Disco Revival attempts probably more of a pop music track into nostalgia nirvana. The #Metoo movement then gave her the crucial impetus to stop hesitating with her solo career, she said recently to a New York local newspaper. Over the past few months, a few singles have appeared, including the "Before" produced by Hercules & Love Affair, including cowbells and some of the "Yeaaah-Yeaaah-Yeaaah-Yeaahs" euphorically accosted in the BeeGees falsetto. Glorious.

But Adeline wants to be more than just a retro-dance-act, the competent Hi-NRG, eighties-electropop and -R & B and Vocal-House from the nineties varied ("Magic"). The album has a sophisticated playlist narrative and should be heard through in a flowing groove movement according to the artist, so there are hardly any breaks between the songs. It is a journey through the diverse musical manifestations of newer "Black Music" with the eternally pumping funk bass as a metronome. Unfortunately this does not sound as exciting on album length as it reads here, but nevertheless "[ad-uh-leen]" is a convincing, promising debut, comparable to Solange's "True" (2013). This was followed by the masterpiece "A Seat At The Table".

Andreas Borcholtes playlist KW 47

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Playlist on Spotify

1 Adeline: Illusions

2 Charles Bradley: (I Hope You Find) The Good Life

3 Emilie Zoé: Blackberries

4 Steve Gunn: New Moon

5 Faye Webster: Kingston

6 Hejira: Ribs

7 Anderson Paak: 6 Summers

8 Jadu: uniform

9 Dagobert: You and me

10 The Chemical Brothers: Free Yourself

Adeline not only wrote and sang all the songs on her album, but also produced most of it herself, right down to the finely tuned beats and basslines (nice to hear in the updated gospel "Satellite"). The joy of casual sound and Beatbasteln therefore makes the biggest appeal of "[ad-uh-leen]" from. You'll enjoy the funky Hechel-Sounds in "The Wire" and you'll find bits and pieces about pop culture and showbiz ("Anything to keep the spotlight") in the accompanying text. In the elegantly dislocated soul-jazz-ballad "Emeralds" it is against crystalline drugs and jewels, because of course love is the only true intoxication and seduction ("This high is natural"). For the soaring soul crooning, which also dominates Adeline in addition to cooing and puffing, a prog rock guitar settles in languid ecstasy.

Similarly, spaces of ecstasy are also the minimalist pluckering "illusions", as are self-empowered genre colleagues like Abra or Kelela then not far away. "This World Is Mine" is the final word for Adeline about the confidently pushing disco beat and the hissing hi-hat in "Never Know". She has not printed her name in phonetic writing on the cover for nothing. (8.0) Andreas Borcholte

Anderson.Paak - "Oxnard"
(Aftermath / Warner, since November 16)

The biggest asset of Brandon Paak Anderson has been to be an interim solution. That's not meant to be disrespectful. Those who listened to their music simply got the best out of two opposing worlds: on the one hand street-tested rap-credibility that reminded Kendrick Lamar at the time of "To Pimp A Butterfly" not only because of his similar raspy voice, but also a good portion of that sunny and Radio-ready soul radio, which made Bruno Mars one of the planet's most successful musicians. However, Anderson.Paak managed to do that without sounding like an industrial accident in the confectionery factory. This resulted in a particularly attractive mixture in dark times: a sound that spread an euphoria that is otherwise only known after the sixth mixed drink on a mild summer night.

Also on "Oxnard" there are such moments. But the unconditional ease, which made its predecessor "Malibu" a small masterpiece, one looks in vain. That's the main thing - fans must be strong now - dr. Dre, who coproduced Anderson's third solo album. Of course, the signature of the hip-hop godfather leads to some strong moments, such as the Blaxploitation soundtrack reminiscent opener "The Chase" (feat Kadhja Bonet) or the G-Funk hip shaker "Anywhere" - with Snoop Dogg at his best Mikro and Dres patented bass beats in the background.

On the whole length of the influence of the doctor, however, is mainly responsible for the fact that "Oxnard" sounds too compatibly mass compatible. There are plenty of musical ideas, but they were covered with a spotlight-ready polish that Anderson does not really need. This becomes clearest in "Mansa Mura" (feat .: Dr. Dre & Cocoa Sarai) or in the single "Tints" (feat Kendrick Lamar), which is best suited as satire for Californian laxity - and like the dumbing down of two great artist works.

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The strongest is "Oxnard" when no one interferes. For example, in the central track of the album, the well-produced "6 Summers" - one of only a few songs without a prominent feature. For a fragmented percussion beat, Anderson formulates a biting protest song against the arms epidemic ignored by parts of politics - leaving no doubt about his addressee: "Dear Mr. President / it's evident that you do not give a damn". This is immediately signed, except for a self-confident claim that is placed in the same song: "This shit is gonna bang for at least six summers". Sorry, dear Anderson, not really. Maybe next time again . (7.2) Dennis Pohl

Charles Bradley - "Black Velvet"
(Daptone / Groove Attack, since 9th of November)

Anyone driving to Brooklyn on the subway to Charles Bradley ten years ago saw plenty of poverty. Like the social housing Bradley knew from the inside. Even deeper into today's hipster district, in a Bushwick cottage, sat the Daptone record label. In the small studio Amy Winehouse had recorded some songs of her hit album "Back To Black". Everything is analog. An elderly man repaired the wooden stairs to the cellar. "Hi, I am Charles, yes, these stairs, man, let's go!"

Daptone lived on the reputation of Winehouse and the Retrosoul albums that Sharon Jones released with the house band, the Dap-Kings. Two years later, the stairwell itself came into the spotlight. At age 62, Bradley released his debut album, "No Time For Dreaming" (2011). His mid-tempo, long-circulated lawsuit "The World is Going Up in Flames," was not an empty promise. At the core was the eternal pop question: What is the downfall - the world, our love, my life? And what is the difference? His face showed the victory of Soul as a painting: pain, yes, but also the joy of being able to overcome the suffering of music.

Bradley toured constantly during the three albums he released. In 2016, during the conversation Berlin on "Changes" , his third work, he still did not come out amazed to have made it. His hands and his gaze were warm, he talked about the room service, the steaks ("so fat!"), His recipes for back pain ("schnapps in very hot bath water!" And the "sweet potato fries in this shop, I'll tell you! "A few months later came the cancer diagnosis, in September 2017 Charles Bradley died.

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"Black Velvet", released a year after his death, goes deep into the archives. There are ten songs of which almost all have never heard. Most of the songs are played by the Menahan Street band that guitarist and songwriter Thomas Brenneck paired with Bradley. Nice are also the cover versions, which were only available on special editions of his debut so far: "Heart Of Gold" by Neil Young and, even better, "Stay Away" by Nirvana in a half psychedelic, half soulful version. The album's single covers once again the general theme of Bradley: "I Feel A Change". The change, the old sow, is unpredictable: sometimes he brings late fame and social advancement, sometimes the damned cancer. The title song "Black Velvet" Bradley could no longer sing, he remains an instrumental track. The grave, an acoustic blank. (without rating ) Tobi Müller

Emilie Zoé - "The Very Start"
(Hummus Records, since 9th of November)

The best Doom Metal album of the year comes from a woman. When Sleep's Californians managed to melt the South Pole with their long-lasting, very good album "The Sciences" ("Antarcticans Thawed"), Swiss artist Emilie Zoé soon lets everything melt free again. "The Very Start" is not really metal at all, but rather captivatingly monochrome, morbid-depressive singer-songwriter-pop, even though there can be no talk of turning to the popular here, in the lonesome ice bath with the dreariness.

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Zoé, who forms a duo with drummer Nicola Pittet, is a guitarist from Franco-Swiss Neuchâtel, who has already played in the live bands of Sophie Hunger and Anna Aaron and recently released the soundtrack for the mystery series "Anomalia". wrote. You do not know from what depths she scooped up the ten songs of her second album, but it has to be an otherworldly place, where zombie birds fly around ("Dead Birds Fly"), frozen berries glimmer on arid shrubs ("Blackberries") and you even through the severe frost, the smell of decay anticipated ("Nothing Stands"). "Soon I'll dissolve into everything", Zoé sings with sweet-somnambulistic ice princesses voice in "6 O'Clock" to the cast-iron blows Pittets, who then takes the role of Charon on Zoés ride on the Styx in harmony singing. Nick Cave would also be in such a lame atmosphere, as would Doom and Gloom relatives like Chelsea Wolfe or PJ Harvey.

The Metal-feeling, maybe even a grunge-heritage, turns into "Tiger Song" and "Blackberries" at the latest when guitar and drums get into repetitive, swelling drones. "Loner", strumming on the piano with a drowning voice into the twilight under the insulating ice, sifts to the middle of the album in the wet and cold grave. But then, in "The Barren Land" and "Sailor", Zoé and Pittet saw and hammer again with glistening noise through glaciers, frozen mountain lakes and Alpenfels eons - into the pale November light. (7.7) Andreas Borcholte.

Rating: From "0" (absolute disaster) to "10" (absolute classic)