Jevon brings an authentic mix of Brazilian and British influences on his debut.
8.0
Credit: WZRD Records / Jevon
Verdict: An authentic, genre-blending, body-moving record.
We are so often sold versions of other parts of the world through music. Think about the generic, background-filling vague-songs that populate so many travel documentaries, roughly associating certain cultures, countries and peoples with a Westernised take on ‘their’ sound. It’s a grating thing to comprehend.
Exploring the sounds of places beyond the UK and the USA, therefore, requires real, lived experiences. Jevon, it feels, is trying to seek just that, having to work backwards from his hometown of London to reconnect with his Brazillian routes. It’s the album so boldly combines the minimalist swagger of UK Hip Hop with the richness of Brazil’s musical heritage.
“All manner of Latin sounds populate the moments in between, making healthy room for British influences along the way.”
No genre is off limits for him; each track is its own dip into sounds that we don’t get mainstream exposure to over here. The sultry calm of Bossa Nova floods into ‘Heaven’s Calling’, whilst the intensity of Funk Carioca is found all over the fiery beat of ‘Lil Ze’ and in the flag-waving trumpets on ‘Playboy’. All manner of Latin sounds populate the moments in between, making healthy room for British influences along the way.
The balance is a hard one to strike; Jevon is certainly comfortable performing the sounds on both sides of the record, but it has trouble smoothing the transitions between them. Far be it for me to judge this – mixing two worlds of sound that are so different is a mighty task on a debut album.
And it’s clear that little time was spent trying to resolve this any further. Instead, the focus is put on flaring this thing with so much fire and energy. The production absolutely bangs, delivering richness, heat and polish, whilst Jevon’s flow dazzles with personality. So much of this record begs you to start dancing to it, or at least trying to dance in a way that does justice to these rhythms.
“…the journey he took to rediscover his own heritage [is] so beautifully conveyed on every track.”
The gripes I have with library/stock music filling the gaps for culture and setting that a lot of media isn’t interested in genuinely reproducing don’t come within the orbit of this thing. Fell In Love In Brazil truly lives up to its name, with the journey he took to rediscover his own heritage being so beautifully conveyed on every track. It’s a record that begs to have a playlist made of the sounds that inspired it.
There’s an overwhelming sense that pride is what drives the authenticity of this incredibly impressive debut record. Pride in his heritage, pride in his experiences, and pride in the need to express them. Jevon’s combination of sounds from two sonically isolated places isn’t without its rough patches, but the real achievement of his debut is in how deftly and how confidently he goes about it. Brazil doesn’t feel so far away when this thing is on, and as an addition to the soundtrack that needs to be lined up for a summer like the one we will hopefully be having this year, this is such a perfect injection of sub-tropic energy.
Score: 8.0/10
Check out Jevon and tons of other great new music on the Sourhouse MUSICBOX playlist.
