Edy – Edyonthebeat (13th Floor Album Review)

Pacific Music Award-nominated producer EDY is thrilled to announce the long-awaited release of his debut album, EDYONTHEBEAT LP. And here is the 13th Floor’s own Eddie to give it a spin.

When John Williams composed the Cantina Band music for the Star Wars movie his goal was to give us some insight into a completely alien culture. Somehow, he succeeds – music has that strange power.

Contemporary R&B is for me an alien culture. Emphasis on contemporary because clearly the classics are a different story.

EDY’s (Edward Liu), debut LP EDYONTHEBEAT, is firmly set within the genre, indeed the press release reads – This album is a soulful journey into the heart of R&B. Educate me EDY! I listened carefully to this debut album, noting in his press release he wrote it for musicians. I’m all ears.

Over past few years, EDY has steadily built a career as a producer in Auckland. This time it’s his own name on the front cover. The album opens with a track called, Welcome to The Kitchen, a short, dreamy funk instrumental. Highly engineered, clean lines, it pops with plenty of humour.

As we progress, EDY’s laid-back vocals permeate the 12 tracks and his fingerprints are evident in the production throughout – but there’s a whole crowd of other voices collaborating, Kiwi artists such as Sam V, HALES, JARNA, BKIDD, LNGSLV, XUZZ, William Singe, Amila, Hamo Dell, and ELENA. Despite their penchant for capitalising their names, there’s an understated groove which runs through the album.

Alongside EDY’s aspirated falsetto, calling us to ‘Breathe’, the recurring topic addressed within the lyrics is your classic; relationships, sex and love with the ensuing turmoil these things tend to stir up. While it may not stir me, it’s true to the R&B way and presumably an accurate reflection of the lives of these artists and the culture they represent. In any case the culture is revealed more in the groove and musicality than it is in the lyrics.

The album is concise, the tracks generally under 3 minutes long which shows constraint. While production is clearly important to EDY, who describes himself as a Producer first and foremost, it doesn’t feel over-engineered and serves the wider groove. Restraint is the word that comes to mind. Collaborations are at the heart of this work, reflecting the significance of friendship and shared experience within this crowd.

If there’s a central message I can pick up, it’s a call for us all to RELAX, or as EDY put’s it in the albums focus track, Breathe.

In some respects, the casual call in track 2 Tornado – to ‘Forget the world is a tornado’, sums it up…If I’ve gained any insight into this alien culture, it is that this crowd knows how to deal with the overwhelming onslaught of noise, hormones and information that modern life throws at them. Somehow, they emerge looking surprisingly unruffled.

Is EDY the best representative of this genre? Perhaps I should have just gone to some of the contemporary R&B greats and overlooked this debut offering. EDY’s work intersects directly with youth culture in New Zealand. Surely that’s what the genre is all about. It’s a voice for a movement whose lives are largely invisible to the mainstream.

My music tastes have not vastly shifted having dipped my toes into EDY’s pond, but it has given me a greater insight into his world and I’m pleased to report, there’s much to admire. I’ll certainly listen differently to this style in the future, perhaps even begin to glimpse as an outsider, what is self-evident to those on the inside.

Eddie George Kitchin (One Man)