In the last few years – probably inspired by influential Brooklynites TV on the Radio – more and more emerging non-African American NYC bands have been embracing the influence of soul music, something that in the past was often discarded by "creative types" on the basis of its implicit connection to chart climbing aspirations. As it often happens, these Caucasian musicians are now stripping some of the passion and energy out of the African American traditional genre, replacing it with darkness, tension and varying degrees of experimentation. This musical phenomenon has already found a brand new label (Alt’n’B) – althought in our charts we simply call it Alt Soul.
Brooklyn based chanteuse Katherine Smith, under the moniker Lewis, has released a single track so far – but a good one – titled "Hunter." The song caught none other than Jay Z’s ear. This led to a remix version featuring his vocals, which is climbing the Hypem charts. Then Eric Weiner from The Wild Honey Pie – with whom we share a passion for intense and mellow female fronted artists – produced this video for the single, which was unveiled today.
We don’t know much more about Lewis – from a quick glance at the Facebook wall there aren’t any shows scheduled nor there seem to be plans for other releases – but the potential of this project can’t be ignored.
We added this song to The Deli’s playlist of Best NYC songs by emerging NYC artists – check it out!