There’s something magical about Neo-Soul that transcends generational music trends. When the genre first emerged as a by-product of the Motown era in the late 90’s, it was coined to describe the niche amalgamation of Soul and R’n’B. Nowadays, as we’ve seen the use of musical categorisation and genre becoming more obsolete, we’ve also seen this shift give new life to the hybridity of Neo-Soul music. In that way, modern Neo-Soul can only be described as Soul music blended with anything that hits – whether that's jazz, hip-hop or orchestral music – you name it, the sonics of Soul are being explored in ways they have never been before.
One band that embody everything that the contemporary Neo-Soul movement encompasses is Brighton’s Normanton Street. The dynamic trio – made up of instrumentalists Ned, Nicholson and lead vocalist Phoebe - have spent their decade-long careers travelling across the UK, Europe and the U.S.; lighting up intimate stages and touring with the likes of Taleb Kweli. On their travels, through the far reaches of the musical world, they’ve remained dedicated to experimenting with all iterations of Soul music and coming up with fresh sounds to keep pushing the nostalgic genre they know and love into the future. Their latest offering “Grace”, sees the band team up with the Bradford Youth Orchestra to bring about a symphonic Soul-fusion record, which boasts grounding lyrical messages about dealing with one's expectations in love.
Read QM Record’s full interview with Normanton Street where they talk about the inspirations behind their heartfelt new record, as well as their musical plans for the rest of 2021 here.