Ashley Tendekai aka FLVZ is a big creative talent and I'm predicting that he will get much bigger over the following years. FLVZ was born in Harare (Zimbabwe), but was heavily involved in the Nottingham live music scene before recently moving to Leeds: running the Electronic Music Open Mic at The Chameleon Arts Cafe, as well as being one of the organisers for the Synaethesia Electronic Music Stage at the last two Hockley Hustles. He has just completed a several serious projects that deserve some serious listening and has spent much of the lockdown completing projects, revisiting old ones, executive produced a video game soundtrack and even filmed a short film.
His recent releases include a collaborative charity EP titled Pangaea and he worked with the following great artists to produce an incredible positive and uplifting vibe with a world music fusion sound;
Juskarma made the beat, a producer/songwriter with influences in soul music, reggae, hip hop and grime.
Kenzola was behind all the guitar work that Juskarma used to build the beat around, an unsung London-based guitarist that tells each story with care. Kenzola focuses on reading the energy and capturing the moment.
Brett Sinclair a Singer Songwriter from Nottingham currently working on a concept album to be released in the next few years, was on the first verse and some of the chorus.
Kudi Israel who shared the first two choruses with Brett is a London-based R&B artist infusing old school RnB with Neo-Soul for a modern take on the genre.
Kay, a Spanish singer and song writer, was born in Cadiz and grew up always surrounded by music and instruments. She moved to the UK in 2012 and started fronting the popular Latin inspired band The Sugar Tree, she is also the Spanish half on the brittish/spanish musical duo "Descaradas" with Molly May.
Rukus is a UK recording artist, DJ, and producer who has been professionally touring and performing both nationally and internationally as a solo artist and with his TRINITY collective. Rukus released a number of hits in 2006 that featured and had regular airplay on stations such Radio1, 1Xtra, MTV Base, Channel U.
Moak is a writer, poet and lyricist based in London. Trust your voice.
Issaka Influenced by jazz, folk, pop and predominantly soul, Issaka is a singer songwriter with a quirky, eclectic and powerful sound best described as alternative soul or soulful acoustica. Based in Manchester, Issaka is described 'Sweet like honey' and her tunes will 'stick like honey'. Issaka sings her verse in Dutch, and in the latter part of my verse (last verse) I borrow her voice for a section I simply couldn’t do justice with my own singing.
Jonathan Mukholi designed the cover art.
You can hear the completed tracks on;
Next up....FLVZ gives us Butterflies and this release has it all, with fusions of electronica, Afro sounds, Latin rhythms, hip hop and psychedelia all thrown into a melting pot that leaves you breathless. The download includes FLVZ's original track and five remixes to keep you listening for all the nuances and possibilities that the music has to offer and clever use of bass tones makes this a moody and moveable track that leaves you wanting so much more....
And finally....FLVZ gives us ThisIsVibrous EP, with the title track that won a production competition hosted on Reason Talk (forum for Reason production software users and developers). This EP is a collection of three tracks from FLVZ on the A Side-Butterflies, #ThisIsVibrous and Pixies and all worthy of your time. In contrast the B Side features a much darker sound from the artist Steve Hadfield. A great split of styles from the two artists and available in limited edition pink cassette....Yes PINK cassette
You can follow FLVZ on his social media links below