When done right R&B and electronic music go together like IG models and yoga pants. Case in point are vocalist/MC Lafa Taylor and producer/multi-instrumentalist Aabo, who team-up to make dance floor music that pairs classic house with the soul of contemporary R&B.
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Crave is exclusively premiering Lafa Taylor & Aabo’s new album, FEEL. The appropriately-titled seven-track release is full of feel-good tunes layered in crate-digging rhythms and slick vocals that shift, bend and slide across a dial of genres on the same song.
A standout track on FEEL is “Falling”, their seductive collab with soul chanteuse Goapele that fits right into an alternative R&B Playlist next to Kaytranada and Anderson .Paak.
Here’s what Lafa Taylor and Aabo had to say about the making of FEEL, “At the time we were making FEEL, artists like Disclosure and Kaytranada were just starting to come on the scene. Their pairing of soulful vocals with funky, 4 on the floor was a big inspiration to us. We made most of the initial beats on our computers and wrote the songs in obscure places like traveling in Japan, in LT’s mobile studio-bus parked under a freeway in Portland, or kicking back at music festivals. Then we began to layer electric bass, guitar, and percussion on top, played mostly by Aabo. Once we had the vocals finalized we felt that adding horn sections to some of the tunes would be a unique twist that you don’t hear much in house music, let alone electronic music. We enlisted some friends from NYC, Jas Walton & Miles Arntzen from the group, EMEFE, to arrange and record saxophones, trumpets, and flutes. We love the way this came out.
For more sights, sounds, and info on Lafa Taylor go HERE and for Aabo go HERE.
