children of zeus: travel light
Francisco Espregueira
Soul food for your earholes with the debut album of Children of Zeus - Travel Light. Following up the compilation of songs released throughout the last few years - The Story So Far -, Tyler Daley and Konny Kon traveled a long road to this point. From underground shows in the vibrant Manchester scene, to Boiler Room appearances streaming worldwide, they finally reached to the stage where they are releasing their first full LP. A project in which they embrace their roots, maturing in a magnificent soul-driven hip hop, where verses lay back in the groove without fully disappearing. Once again, under the seal of First Word Records. Keeping their eyes on the road ahead, whilst shedding the baggage they’ve accumulated over the years - with hits such as "Still Standing", "I Can’t Wait" and "Slow Down" still on our minds.
Great feature artists showing up in the project, with a few extra special ingredients, along with Children of Zeus's trademark sub-heavy, rhodes-laden hip hop soul. The album unfolds in their own vibe, touching - like they always touched - their individual influences. Mixing them with fluidity under a warm cover of a fly lo fi dusty street soul.
Long as the journey has been, the time for looking back is over. This is about the present and future of Children of Zeus. A shining light in Manchester’s now-school, and rightly heralded by many as the best new act to emerge in British soul music in the past decade. And we finish the night here with last track of Travel Light. An epic K15-produced jazz-bruk opus - "Vibrations". We hear Konny Kon breaking it down quite simply: “high frequency means that you travel light, so get lifted yo, we’ll live gifted”.
Newly released Travel Light is an LP to hear now. To revisit tomorrow. And the day after tomorrow. At the moment, with so many good tracks to choose from inside the project, is hard to decide which song to begin with this trip. Brilliant. Available in all formats.