Distorted Soul Reviews

Review of Distorted Soul 2.0

"With more and more musicians going the independent road and releasing their music with no major labels involved you can hear more often what the artists’ real music sounds like and that is often a fusion of various styles that combines funk, soul and rock that can’t be pigeonholed. Take Yewande for example or Shayna Steele, Monique Debose or Nadir.

"Nadir, pronounced Nay-deer, was born Curtis McFarlin but changed his name to Jonah Nadir Omowale. Nadir is Arabic meaning rare and unique and Omowale is Yoruba for child who has returned home. He started making music in Nashville, TN, but moved to Detroit, MI, in 1999 to boost his musical career and to do something other than country.

"And something other is what we get on Distorted Soul 2.0. The music is always hand-made with real drums, guitars, rhodes, piano etc. and all songs were written or co-written by Nadir who also produced/co-produced the songs. There’s the vigorous funk-rock of Slave or Daddy’s Cane, the earthy soul of Fortune & Fantasy or SoulMate (two of my favourites songs here), or the midtempo funk of Sanctified. But Nadir can get smooth too with the slow groover All Over You or the impressive afro-brazilian influenced Queen Of Sheba.

"Although can hear influences by Sly Stone, Lenny Kravitz, Isley Brothers, Tony Toni Tone and others in Nadir’s music he has really developed a sound and style of his own and Distorted Soul 2.0 is very different from what I’ve heard in a long time and that’s what makes this album special. With Nadir’s ability to fuse different music styles this album may not appeal to you at first listening and it may be a nightmare to any major label’s promotion department, who don’t know how to handle quality and multifaceted music, but don’t let that be your loss."

Dirk Binsau
www.jazz-not-jazz.com

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