Song of the Day: Kelela “Rewind”

Kelela is one of my favorite R&B artists currently putting out music. A few months ago, she came out with an EP, Hallucinogen on Cherry Coffee/Warp Records. Rewind is a track produced by Kingdom, Nugget and Kelela. This song could well be from the mid-90’s So So Def Bass All-Stars mixes but it also sounds new. Maybe it’s the 808s and haunting synths that I love that has me listening to this jam on repeat.

More on Hallucinogen from Tom Breihan/Stereogum (their Album Of The Week)

This is squirming, uncomfortable music, but it’s not detached. It’s fluid and emotional. As instrumentals, the EP would make for a great little compilation of forward-thinking, untethered producers. But Kelela bends and twists these dystopic tracks until they sound completely human. For her, they’re vehicles to tell her story, and I can’t think of another singer who could turn them into that.

Song of the Day: Kelela “Rewind”