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Whenever there’s any inkling or suggestion there’s a collaborative project or any kind of collaboration between two or more artists from around our indie music community and beyond-there’s a genuine sense that within a collaboration between a group of musicians, there’s an encapsulation of everything that is good about our indie music scene and humanity within one piece of music. Within a collaboration you can find the support and encouragement of one another’s musical gifts that is inherent throughout as well as the communication and sharing of these talents amongst each musician which is then offered towards those around our globe who enjoy, create and are inspired by music.
In the case of Beasty Fan Music Club we have a full collaborative project here which is an indie music smorgasbord of musical excellence. Including members from true indie and music legends Stefski & Hutch (Stephane begun this extraordinary side project), the highly impressive jazz, rock and soul vocalist from Warsaw Kaja Kazmierczyk, the British indie one man whirlwind of brilliance Adam (Stolen from the Sky) adding background harmonies and guitars, including the amazing and brilliant American r’n’b singer, songwriter and musician Cintale adds extra weight to this impressive line up-we also have Parisian bass player, sound engineer and producer Nils Thomas handling the mastering of the tracks…man, and we round this off with the advice and ear of the extraordinary musical talent that is the USA’s Andres of Entropy in Motion, Czna and McCully Cuckold…wow! It seems we have an indie supergroup on our hands here and a collaboration which covers all the above-mentioned traits which reflects our indie community as it ultimately can be and IS.
The reggae is very much at the heart and soul of this particular piece (obviously, with “reggae version” in the title) but as well as in the title we hear it in the off beats here…that one drop groove from the drum set, the bass that holds a groove and a melody that seeps within the song and the listeners ears locking you in. Beautiful guitar figures-again those off beats- but also those muted and rhythmic guitar scrapes and flicks adds to the deeply rhythmic groove, now and then a beautifully crafted guitar figure will jump out as well…the instrumentation here-including the sounds from the keyboards-the Caribbean steel drums further enhance the melodic and rhythmic backdrop and then a wonderful horn section rounds it off so elegantly.
This is the perfect sonic backdrop which allows the immensely brilliant vocal inflections and powerfully melodic display of vocal talent that Kaja brings with the lead vocal here to the forefront. There’s a moment when the “I don’t need you no more, I don’t want you to pretend any more” pre-chorus hits-the horns are brought back in and this is where the brilliance in the production and musicianship is on display… Within this arrangement of “If You Don’t Love Me-Reggae Version” I feel all the vocal elements and the musical backdrop drive the message home in a most memorable and pleasing way-compared with the original which is just as brilliant (definitely check that out as well) this stands as a more personal and intimate experience of this song. The original is slightly more atmospheric and definitely very rich in texture-the vocals are harmonised by Stephane here. These are both a wonderful take on the same song. And another reason we can be proud there are artists in our community creating together and showing us all that music can be a wonderfully uniting and inspiring craft, with human elements and imaginative explorations that go above and beyond any limitations.
