Though there is no shortage of “unique” and “innovative” artist dotting the landscape of today’s music industry, actor/ musician Raleigh Ritchie manages to bring something different to the table with his own style of genre blending. Born in Bristol, England, Ritchie’s music is somewhat evasive in the genre his various albums an EP’s fall into, filling a general middle-ground of electronic R&B Hip-hop, with each track occupying its own space on this interesting spectrum.
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Beginning with his feature on the soundtrack of the US television series Adulthood (2008), Jacob Anderson’s career as a singer began its ascent (Anderson would later adopt the stage name Raleigh Ritchie for his musical career). In an interesting twist regarding his two careers, however, the singer/ songwriter became much better known for his role in the hit HBO television series adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones, playing the role of the Leader of the Unsullied, Greyworm. Despite his part in the series, Anderson hasn’t taken time away from his initial passion of music, releasing his first feature length album, You’re a Man Now, Boy, and continuing work on his as of yet untitled second album. In the meantime, Anderson has released two singles under the name Raleigh Ritchie, one of which is to be included on his new album, with no current release date on his next album. In the meantime, however, there is still a lot to be talked about with Ritchie’s first full-length Album, with the eclectic medley of sounds and messages he presents throughout it.
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Starting the off the Album is the song Werld is Mine, with a slower, heavier tempo that sits more on the R&B side of this album. The song also sits in one of two general camps within the album, focusing on what Ritchie considers a kind of naïve way of living focused of money and power, the highs of such a life, but also how it is unstable and unsustainable. I would consider this song somewhat middle of the road on this album, being a fun listen for sure, but with more impressive accompaniments later on in the album.
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The next track on the album is Stronger Than Ever, which sits in the other camp within this album, this time focusing on depression, anger, and failure in life. The song has more of a bitter feel to it, with a slow tempo and softer instrumentals balanced out by a heavy bass. I would consider the song itself to be the best of the album, having both a strong message as well as a powerful and emotional sound to it that many might consider a bit of a “rainy day” sort of a song. The song itself deals primarily with the concept of depression, and the lack of motivation and frustration that often accompany it. About halfway through the song, during its breakdown in which Ritchie transitions into a faster tempo rap, is a particularly powerful point within the song, with the following verse driving home the ideas present throughout the song;
Big explosions crack through thunderous mountains
Hearts exploding, minds, volcanoes pop and blow
I'm not alone, I'm not alone
Who am I kidding? I'm sad, no ideas coming
It's driving me mad and I'm fighting it
It's turning me bad, I'm loaded, pages taking me over
I just wanna be home with all my friends and family
Mum and dad, it's closing in on me, I need recovery, coming home
I'm coming home and I need closure, I need closure
Though focused mainly on his own issues and career as a singer/ artist, this verse encapsulates many of the struggles people face when going through depressed periods, from lack of motivation and creativity, to self-loathing and apathy. Overall, I think the Stronger Than ever shows off many of the talents in which Ritchie brings to the table, from dynamic tempos and beats throughout his songs and album, to his ability to transition between a broad range of genres and themes within his music.
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Towards the middle of the album, the song Cowards, another favorite of mine off the album, makes its appearance. Filling a similar space as Werld is Mine, the song has a catchier, almost euphoric feeling to it, with a laid-back chorus that make it an easy song to listen to. The song itself is about the difficulty of communication in a relationship, and the tendency for us to hide ourselves out of fear for how we’ll be perceived. Through this darker message, however, is a more optimistic take on the problem, focusing on how despite these difficulties, people can still make a relationship work with enough time and effort.
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A bit after Cowards the album’s namesake, You’re a Man Now, Boy, makes its debut with an energy not too far off from Stronger Than Ever, despite the two songs’ very different messages. Whereas Stronger Than Ever focuses on mental health and a bit more on Ritchie’s experience with it, You’re a Man Now, Boy relays a much more universal struggle for all people: becoming an adult. I could go on about what I think Ritchie is going for with this song, but I feel the song speaks for itself, such as in these two verses towards the middle of the song;
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Though now I have to think about the water bills
Still feel a pang of guilt about the snails I killed
I smoke too many cigarettes and drink too much
See the news and feel the blues, I'm feeling out of touch
I was an astronaut once upon a time
Now I'm tryna stay grounded, keep some order in my life
The song’s lines jump back and forth between the naivety of childhood to the often-uninteresting realities of adulthood, as well as the eventual understanding that we never really lose the kid inside of us. Between these two aspects of the song as well as it’s enjoyable sound make it yet another favorite of mine off of the album, living up to its place as the album’s namesake.
Rounding off the album is Stay Inside, a somewhat odd song that somehow still manages to fit into the eclectic feel of the rest of the album. In an ironic fashion, the song both encapsulates the feeling of spending time alone indoors, and the various feelings associated with it, while also being about how social interaction is an important part of our lives. The song, much like the album, is a nearly contradictory grouping of messages that all seem to work together in spite of themselves, making Stay Inside almost like a perfect cap to the experience.
If any of this interests you, or you’re looking to listen to something new, then you should absolutely give Raleigh Ritchie’s music a listen, and see what else You’re a Man Now, Boy has to offer.
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by Jacob Samoray
Staff Writer
photos RaleighRitchie.com
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Raleigh Ritchie.
SoundCloud Rap
in the PNW
An Introduction to New Music Near You;
The internet music phenomenon SoundCloud rap is an all encompassing genre. The genre itself was born from the fact that artists could upload their DIY music and share them with the masses virtually for free. There are no record labels pushing artists or co signing them for economic benefit. Originally, the art itself was unique and their was a clear distinction between SoundCloud rap and the existing rap genre itself. However, as time passes originality and creativity are becoming obsolete. Art is less important and a quick and viral rise to fame is becoming the focus of many artists sharing their music today. This has become the drive behind many of the uploads onto the site as within the last couple of years there have been numerous artists that have graduated from the platform and then move into mainstream music culture. Music nowadays on SoundCloud is generated to match an already pre existing formula and the general aesthetic of the artists does not tend to vary. On the large scale, originality is becoming less and less prevalent. Interestingly enough, this is not the case for a group of artists who are based near us right now in Western Washington. Full of drugs, partying, girls, life's lows and highs, the general message of this music may not seem to vary from what has been said before. However, I haven’t hear any music in the mainstream that carries the same energy and feeling that I receive from these artists. Here are three tracks that are very different from one another and I believe it would give you - the listener - a great introduction into the local music culture we have developing in the Pacific Northwest.
Link to tracks and reviews:
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by Oliver Waldo
Staff Writer
photos Soundcloud.com
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SABATON
When you stop to think about popular and growing genres in the past decade, I’d imagine few people’s first thoughts would be brought to metal, a genre that has largely fallen to the wayside of mainstream music coverage. Gone are the days of bands like Metallica and Black Sabbath, where metal could draw large crowds and guarantee a following across the country. Yet in this wake, something interesting has happened within the Metal scene that not all people may know about. Rather than building “up”, the genre has begun to expand and diversify, filling a broader range of sounds and styles than most genres have seen. From industrial, speed, and death metal, to sub-genres as out there as pirate, viking, and parrot metal (I’m seriously not making this one up), the genre of metal has become a wide landscape, rife for exploration by those willing to try something a little different. One such band that’s carved their own interesting niche within this landscape is the Swedish Heavy/ Power Metal band, Sabaton.
Growing in popularity over the 2 decades since their inception, Sabaton has carved their own place within this competitive landscape of sub-genres, less-so creating their own genre as much as bringing a new turn on the sounds common to Power Metal with their own style and theme. Across their studio albums, Sabaton, the name of foot armor worn by medieval knights and soldiers, has made their mark on the genre with their common theme of war stories, most often grounded in historical events across human history. While concepts like fighting are far from uncommon within the Metal genre, Sabaton’s attentiveness to the history behind their song’s topics is something that sets them far apart from other bands, giving an added depth to their music. Nowhere else in their work is this historical aspect better seen than in their eighth studio album, The Last Stand, released in August of 2016. As the name implies, the focus of the album is on various “final stands” across cultures and time periods in human history. From the Battle of Thermopylae to the Satsuma Rebellion in Japan, The Last Stand delivers both a great sounding musical experience as well as a nice entry into the many interesting battles fought across human history.
Starting off the album is the song Sparta, which likely needs little introduction due to its highly successful silver-screen counterpart, 300, directed by Zach Snyder. The song follows the defeat of Spartan king Leonidas and the 300 spartan warriors under his command at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480BC, where against all odds he and his men held off a Persian invasion force five times their size before eventually falling. The song itself is a strong start to the album, with the instruments and vocals feeling like an auditory mimicry of the Hellenic romanticizing of warfare found throughout their history (if that somehow makes any sense).
Shortly afterward is Blood of Bannockburn, which follows Robert “The Bruce” Bruce’s successful rebellion against England after the much more famous effort put fort by William Wallace. The song opens up with traditional Scottish bagpipes playing a sort of war song, before segueing into Sabaton’s more characteristically energetic instrumental backdrop. The song itself looks at the first War of Scottish Independence, and at King Robert Bruce of Scotland, which is largely overshadowed by his predecessor, Sir William Wallace. In short, following disputes over land rights granted to them following the beginning of the Scottish rebellion, Robert “The Bruce”, as he was called, began a scorched earth policy of retaking and then abandoning Scottish keeps, waging one of the earliest guerilla wars against the English armies. After years of fighting and using their home land to their advantage, The Bruce and his Scottish army finally drove back the English invaders, gaining independence for Scotland. The sound of the song is almost patriotic in a strange sense, having the feel of a recruitment song for King Robert Bruce’s rebellion, giving it an entirely unique feel even within its genre.
Situated about halfway through the album is its namesake, The Final Stand, my personal favorite of the album. While slow to start with silence followed by the ringing of a church bell, the song quickly leaps into the heavy-electric beat common to the power-metal genre, Sabaton’s bread and butter. The song follows its own roller-coaster of tempos, with peaks and dips in energy that help set up its awesome chorus. Equally interesting is the historical side of the song, which tells the tale of the Swiss guard during the Sack of Rome in 1527 AD. After their Holy Roman Empires defeat of French soldiers in Italy, the Holy Roman Empire’s commanders found themselves unable to pay their troops, who then mutinied and force the army towards Rome and the Vatican in order to pillage it for wealth. During this pillaging, the 189 members of the Swiss Guard, the anointed protectors of the Vatican and the Pope, stood against the over 20,000 mutineers in the Teutonic Cemetery within the Vatican City. In the end, only 42 of the 189 Swiss Guardsmen survived, being tasked with guarding the Pope as he was escorted to the better fortified Castel Sant’Angelo along a secret corridor between it and the Vatican that still remains to this day.
Second to last on the album is the song Winged Hussars, named for the famous elite Polish cavalry unit whose distinguished service provided the inspiration for a variety of media, this song included. The song follows the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1529, which lasted for two months and included the destruction of its fortification walls with black-powder bombs, and its lift by Vienna’s allies on September 12th of that year, lead in large part by the Polish Hussars. On the morning of the 12th, the Winged Hussars, alongside Vienna’s other allies, rushed down Kahlenberg Mountain in the largest cavalry charge in history, breaking the siege upon Vienna within the day. If any of this sounds familiar, it could be due to the fact that many believe this historic battle was the inspiration of writer J.R.R. Tolkien’s Battle of Helm’s Deep in the second book of his famous Lord of the Rings Trilogy. In any case, however, Winged Hussars offers yet another solid entry from this album that’s worth a listen, even without the neat backstory and fun facts.
Wrapping up the album is The Last Battle, a strong closer to the album that follows what is likely to be the oddest battle of the Second World War: The Battle for Castle Itter. In the closing days of the European front in World War II, US troops of the 23rd Tank Battalion and 12th Armored Division liberated Castle Itter, located in western Austria, which had been made into a Prisoner of War camp for captured Frenchmen, including former Prime Ministers and generals, as well as French tennis star Jean Borotra, who then were forced to defend the castle against encroaching Nazi SS troops. Alongside this odd mix of allied personnel were also former SS troops under order from Major Josef Gangl and SS-Hauptsturmführer Kurt-Siegfried Schrader, who fought alongside the US soldiers and French prisoners against their own former allies. Amidst the fighting, tennis star Borotra leapt the castle walls and ran through the city in order to deliver key information on enemy strength and positioning to the US 142nd Infantry regiment who had arrived to provide relief to the soldiers in the castle, later returning to Castle Itter with the 142nd to see to its liberation from the Waffen SS soldiers. With the theme of the album being what it is, it would be almost inconceivable for Sabaton not to have included a story as crazy as this, and with solid instrumentals and vocals to back it up, The Last Battle truly does live up to its job as the closer for the album.
Whether you’d typically consider yourself a metal head or not, Sabaton is one band worth giving a try if your looking for something a little different in your musical library. Even if its not quite what you’re looking for, however, I hope you at least get to walk away with a small stash of fun trivia after reading this article.
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by Jacob Samoray
staff writer
photos: bandcamp
ACE
HENDERSON
With the constant rise of new mixed genres making their way to the top of every music platform, its hard to find a relatively unknown artist that’s consistently killing it. Allen “Ace Henderson” a Raleigh, North Carolina based rapper has been flying under the radar for quite some time. His career started off like your average up and coming rapper, right around high school with the bare essentials needed to make music. Not long after he began to focus on music Ace managed to release his first single in 2015 titled Analog Youth: Yesterday’s Over, and he didn’t slow down following his first release was his debut single "28" which has amassed over 100K plays via Spotify. In the summer of 16’.
His most recent EP, titled “Free: Nights & Weekends” was released a little over a year ago and has a total of 6 songs. I personally believe they are all worth listening to, however there are 3 that I highly recommend. The first recommendation being the very first song on the EP which is titled “Push” featuring Yasminah, another young R&B/Soul singer. The song has a slow and mellow tempo, with a retro like sound that transitions well into bass drops allowing listeners to focus on the melancholic lyrics. I think it was a wise choice to have this song as the first song in the EP because it’s a good insight to what the rest of the album is like. The Following song is titled “Runaway!”, like “Push “there is a hint of electric beats throughout the song, however this song is faster paced and contains more of an instrumental sound as opposed to “Push”. This fast pace tempo translates to the emotions Ace Henderson is going through, the realization that someone he cares about has quickly and easily moved on. My last recommendation on this EP would be the song titled “On the Way” its honestly my favorite simply because of how mellow it is. The consistent tempo allows this to happen by creating a rocking motion with its seemingly circulating rhythm. The song is easy to listen to no matter the location and is best described to how Aced describes this EP, “A 7:45 drive down I-40 with the sun coming down. whether you’re coming home from work or you’re on the way to something else, but you’re just like “I’m where I’m supposed to be.”
Since then, Ace Henderson has been constantly making music and has had several singles out since and is consistently featured among other artist, most notably he helped produced the Hype, Season 1 Soundtrack for the Durham-based web series. If you like or would like to follow this new wave of Indie Rap/R&B trend, then I highly recommend Ace Henderson or if you would like to find new artist. Then simply following who Ace Henderson has collaborated with could easily branch you out to other great talents.
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by Luis Ramirez
Staff Writer
photos AudioMack.com
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