Tumelo - Arise and Shine album Review

Tumelo first arrived on the music scene with hip hop group Optical Illsuion releasing 3 album with the group, this time around he's gone solo and it's far from hip hop, he's released his debut album under Soulistic music which features 15 tracks, the production on the album includes himself, Zakes Bantwini, BlackCoffee an Culoe De Song.



Just to give you a brief background about Tumelo and the album as per his profile:

Tumelo's first solo track which he wrote, performed and co-produced titled "You Are" which was featured on the compilation titled "Expressions" which was released by Outrageous Records. It was this track that saw the meeting between Tumelo and Black Coffee at a performance in Pretoria. The track was then remixed and released on Black Coffee's self titled Debut Album which won a Dance SAMA award.

BlackCoffe cookin beats

 
In 2005 Tumelo then signed with Soulistic Music which is headed by Black Coffee and worked with various artists and was featured by Dj's such as Dj Franck Roger, Dj Kabila, Dj Miles, Sis n Jones on their projects. He also performed alongside Lauryn Hill, KB, Zubz and many other artists.

Tumelo is currently featured on Black Coffee's latest album "Home Brewed" where he wrote and sang on the track "Arise and Shine".

Tumelo's debut solo album is out in stores and its released under Soulistic Music, with productions by Zakes Bantwini, stable mates Black Coffee and Culoe de Song. The album is titled "Arise and Shine" and the 1st single "My Confession" featuring Zano is currently on high rotation on YFM 99.2 and getting popular nationwide.

The album features legendary gospel singer Deborah Fraser, rapper J.R and the sensual Vikter Duplaix from the U.S.

Arise and Shine has a mellow sound and doesn't try be something it is not, if the album is anything to go by its a reflection of who Tumelo is,  it's really hard to fault this album, the music is superb with tracks which are inspirational and will make you get off your seat yet at the same time this is a message that one needs to hear.

Tumelo seranading the masses

  
There are no gimmicks or cheesy songs on this album, you can expect to hear music for the soul from the first track which is titled My Confessions which features Zano (Hello), My Confessions is the lead single of the album and the one thing I noted about this song is the vocal arrangment, the arrangment on the song is fresh and it's unlike many duets I've heard in a minute. From there you can't help get lost with tracks like Bo Mme which tells a story of a mothers son leaving his home for the big city in search of a better life and I think every one can relate to the story.

One of my personal favourite tracks has to be Supermodel which features JR (make the circle bigger), Supermodel is one of  the tracks that Tumelo produced on the album which just shows that musically the man is gifted, the plucked strinsg accompanied with the bassline make the song stick.

Not many artists in SA can boast of a collaboration with Vikter Duplaix yet this young man did it and it sounds better than good, Vikter and Tumelo's voices compliment each other harmoniously and it's one of those you'll find yourself repeating.

Deborah Frasier & Tumelo

What you'll gather from the album is that you could easily prepackage it and sell it to a gospel crowd as quite a number of the songs have a spiritual meaning such as Somandla with Deborah Frasier who is a gospel great within her own right as well as Inqaba yam which is suprisingly being requested more and more for club play which is rather surprising considering its spiritually influenced.

Zakes Bantiwni

 
Don't get it twisted the album isn't all soppey but has tracks for the ladies such as Come with me (produced by Zakes Bantwini), All alone, Supermodel and Fight me. Stick this CD in your player whilst you're with your lady and she'll be more than impressed with your good taste in music.

Plenty on the album for the ladies

All in all the album has a well rounded off sound and the tracks flow seamlessly into one another without joliting the ear, sleeve design is simple which tells you that the album is all about the music. This is a must have for anyone who's looking for an album they can still bump long after the festive season is over and still feel like you got your money's worth. The album is in stores so make sure you get yourself a copy of Tumelo's Arise and Shine.




Source: Soulistic

BCM