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It’s hard to believe it’s already been 9 years since The Foreign Exchange’s debut, “Connected” first hit shelves. Funnily enough, “Connected” was also released the same year Facebook launched. When you consider the means by which Phonte and Nicolay first linked (OkayPlayer’s forums), it’s kind of ironic that online collaborations through social networking have become common practise these days.
With this in mind, The Foreign Exchange are somewhat pioneers of the modern digital soul sound, which is a now mainstay anywhere you look online. Nicolay’s production has a good balance between analogue and digital sounds. Just raw enough to still be considered Soul music, but clean enough to have Pop/Mainstream appeal.
Phonte’s growth as an artist is quite commendable. Definitely a long way from the Little Brother sound, so much so that I’m sure he’s sick of hearing the comparison. Many people don’t even consider him a rapper these days, just an all round artist. I don’t know many rappers who can actually sing, write songs, compose vocal arrangements/harmonies the way he does. Wait, does Drake count? because he’s the type of n**ga who likes Phonte to read him bedtime stories! All jokes aside.. anyone who’s been following his career since day one knows the influence Phonte has had on Drake. Phonte’s involvement in FE has most definitely massaged many Hip-Hop heads into broadening their tastes and moving on from what some would call the “dated” boom-bap sound of the 90’s.
Once again showing range and diversity, “Love In Flying Colours” keeps a soulful undertone while including elements of Jazz/Funk, 80’s boogie, house, broken beat, and of course, Hip-Hop. At only ten tracks long, they’ve done a great job of creating continuity throughout the album, which is quite rare today. The one qualm I have with many FE releases is that it’s all ‘nice’ music. Not to take anything away from the music, but it wouldn’t surprise me if their records can be found in the ‘easy listening’ section of your grandmothers favourite record store. As much as I love Phonte, I feel on few occasions his vocals came across as rather ‘fruity’. Eg. “On A Day Like Today”.
There were only a couple of standouts for me. “Better”, featuring Eric Roberson & Shana Tucker is the only track which conveys a little valour amongst the main theme love. Phonte delivers a bold rap, recalling disappointments in old love “Slowed it down took a vow of matrimony, who woulda guessed it all ended in acrimony”, and praising new love “Turn ya world around and then teach us, soup for the soul and it feeds us, so light a candle, I’m feeling brand new fully loaded with features, a love that frees us, Jesus. She’s just better”. The instrumental snippet at the end of the track is also great. “The Moment” is a contemporary sounding House cut, which they kinda pull off whilst maintaing the FE sound. This flows into the Broken Beat “Can’t Turn Around”, which could easily be mistaken for one of Mark de Clive-Lowe’s early productions. Not a bad thing, just a little dated.
FE have clearly found a sonic comfort zone, which suits them well and appeals to their vast, mature fan-base. Nothing’s too hard hitting or bass heavy, which is quite a pleasant contrast to many current releases. However, their sound hasn’t particularly evolved from the last two efforts, which left me rather unfulfilled and with a lingering feeling of unmet expectations.