KAYSOUL - Black Rose

Thinking about it, house music is a simple thing, but it needs to be "felt" on a gut level to convey that enveloping warmth and slightly majestic quality typical of the genre. Some take it very seriously, while others bring a romantic, relaxed approach, almost zen-like, and that's where we find South African KaySoul, a prolific DJ and producer active for years with a plethora of singles and mixes scattered across the web – we'd come across him some time ago in the ranks of the Bristol collective Shall Not Fade with the EP "What Is Blackness?". A proper album was still missing, a gap now filled by Feedasoul, an independent electronic music platform based in Lebanon.

A geography off the beaten track, then, just enough to make “Black Rose” a classic yet subtly eccentric listen, always ready to swerve sideways so as not to necessarily slot into the usual coordinates of its American counterpart, nor bend to the rules of amapiano which, for obvious reasons, is huge in South Africa. A bit deep in its use of atmospheric patterns, a bit soulful thanks to a careful selection of vocal contributions, a bit jazzy through slinky electric piano slides, the record invents nothing new, but it's a pleasure to spin.

It runs through a series of soft, pulsing tracks, marked by a dry, minimal yet never empty production (“All Over Again”, enriched by Berenice Van Leer's lovely voice), then finely polished with lascivious lounge brushstrokes (“D.A.N.C.E.”, with a sly performance by vocalist Tiece) or by urging African woodwinds (“Make It”, with the distinctive timbre of OVEOUS lolling around like Anderson .Paak). Elsewhere, it feels like running into the old Herbert back when he was still married to Dani Siciliano (“Mellotron”), or the sun-drenched house rides of the early 2000s that Ananda Project used to conjure up with Gaelle (“Rising”, the most classic track of the bunch thanks to Sykes's supremely smooth pipes).

But the record also seduces in its instrumental moments, thanks to the contributions of keyboardist Steve Faets, whether it's a shimmering interplay of bass and jazz piano able to hold together rhythmic tension and French elegance (“Bambino”), or a conversation over jagged, hurried beats (“Wake Up”). There's no shortage of brief dips into acid baths either (the instrumental “Odyssey”, almost psychedelic in its unfurling of magnetic waves) and tech-house delicacies (the title track).

What else is there to say, then, about a finely Afrocentric listen like “Black Rose”? Not much, except to thank KaySoul for pouring his soul into it, always in his own way, without fanfare or appearances on the biggest summer stages on the planet.

In fact, the record wraps up its fifty minutes with an inscrutable, free-form, liquid midtempo song (“Swanskin”), as if to reiterate its commitment to a DIY approach rigorously kept far from any radio contact. Because house music can thrive quite happily even in the most unthinkable backwaters of the record industry — you just have to “feel it”.

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08/08/2025