Blogarhythms

Yesterday’s post title was no lie. “Nature’s cathedral” is more than good enough for me. And yeah, I do frequent streetcorners. No, not like that, pervert! I just take any opportunity I can to get out-of-doors. Being a city boy the closest I get to nature are the benches on the corner of my block and in the park at the end of my street. Those settings may not be the most au-natural, but with sunlight and refreshing breezes in abundance chilling on a bench and people-watching with my headphones on is all the alfresco activity I need.

The last couple of weeks — as the remnants of the various and sundry hurricanes which brought so many hardships to the Caribbean and the southern United States injected tropical humidity into the northeastern atmosphere and drenched us with rain — didn’t offer many opportunities for communing with nature or mentally deconstructing the fashion choices of my neighbors while nodding along to my MP3 player. But yesterday the weather was so fucking gorgeous that I found myself wishing I could pack up some food, take my lady by the hand and head up to the aforementioned park for an afternoon picnic or something.

Coincidentally, I’d spent the previous grey and muggy day listening to a record that inspired thoughts of carefree afternoons spent frolicking in the warmth of the sun across verdant landscapes with ones lover under crystal blue skies specked with fluffy cotton-ball clouds. The centerpiece of that record — the debut disc from German Downtempo/Soul outfit Trinah, quite perfectly titled Rainwatcher — is a song called “Sugary Pleasure,” where vocalist Kathrina März coos in a sexily cracked whisper about how sweet her significant others’ love is, likening it to confectionery delights over a gooey electroacoustic track comprised of Ummah-esque drum-programming, luscious keys, glistening chimes, guitar plucks & strums both jazzy and folky and fat synthesized bass that melts into bleeps and blorps like a hunk of chocolate warming in the sun. Getting romantic with sugary sweets in the park? That sounds like a picnic to me!

Trinah “Sugary Pleasure”

Crafted using a mix of live instruments, programmed beats and electronic flourishes, the music Rainwatcher could be seen as a stylistic heir to the hybrid analog/digital Neo-Soul of the Soulquarians and their peers. It’s firmly rooted in the traditions of Jazz, Soul and Pop and shares much in common with the soulful, jazzy Pop-Fusion of ’70s stars like Roberta Flack & Minnie Riperton, the Sophistipop and proto-Acid-Jazz of Sade and more contemporary Trip-Hop, Nu-Soul & Soultronica acts whose affectations run towards grainy noir-cabaret and chilly robosexuality. And März’ feathery vocals — which play innocent and sensuously like some uninhibited child-woman against the band’s musical backdrops that flit between loungey slink (”Miss You,” “Every Day,” “Jules”), sea-breeze-blown Ibiza-ish dancefloor sway (”Follow You”) and radiant bedroom caress (”Precious”) — compare favorably to Lauryn Hill at her most romantical, soulful House chanteuse Lisa Shaw and the aforementioned Ms. Adu. But some compositions (”Sugary Pleasure,” “Don’t Ask,” “Nothin’ Special”) posses a sharp futuristic edge or a gummy, bass-heavy shuffle-step that makes Trinah a group fans of previous Blogarhythms featurees like Little Dragon and Kissey Asplund should be checking for.

Rainwatcher’s light-and-airy sophistication, sentimental songwriting, lush arrangements & orchestrations, poppy melodies and intimate female vocals will probably appeal to fans of Indie-Popsters like Lykke Li, Feist and her homegirls Rubies whose music embraces of Jazz, Folk, Soul, Soft-Rock, Electronica and melodramatic Orchestral-Pop as well. But more than anything it’ll appeal to anybody who just wants to play hookie with their sweetie and make out in the park in these dying days of Summer.