If you need a soundtrack for those late nights of desperate lost-love mourning, look no further.
At Majestic Journal, our “Fresh Sounds”" feature aims to showcase not just the latest tracks from our favourite up-and-coming artists, but the freshest collaborations on our music radar. In our latest feature, we focus on London-based producer Redinho and his funkadelic and introspective single, “Square One,” featuring Kimbra.
Hands up if you’ve been caught up in the back and forth of “bad love.”
London-based producer Redinho (Tom Calvert) draws inspiration from the worst and most tumultuous of love for his latest solo project, “Square One” (2018). He teams up with Kimbra, the New Zealander-singer-songwriter best known for her hit 2016 album “Primal Heart” and Grammy Award-winning collaboration with Gotye, “Somebody That I Used to Know” (2012).
While Redinho is making waves as part of the UK British-Pakistani/Indian-American hip hop trio, “Swet Shop Boys,” and celebrating the four-year anniversary of the release of his debut hit single “Playing with Fire,” “Square One” isn’t this creative duo’s first foray into collaboration, having co-written Kimbra’s silky and funk-infused anthem "Sweet Relief” (2016). Here, after some serious grooving, we unpick the funkadelic R&B sound of “Square One.”
Artwork: "Kimbra" by @Mais.Artworks (Instagram)
“Square One” opens to Redinho’s chop sample of “Talkbox” paired with Kimbra’s vocals echoing atop a bouncy Daft Punk-funk-inspired bassline. The track itself is a three-minute tale of personal snakes and ladders, mixed feelings, and the hot and cold carousel of a noxious relationship. Sampling from a jam session with Kimbra and Redinho’s brother John Calvert, “Square One” gets the head nodding while having you hit REPEAT endlessly on the power chord backdrops of Redinho’s drum shuffles, breakbeats, and Kimbra’s ambient R&B harmonies.
“Just when I thought I was over you: done with you - you creep up and I’m back where I begun - Just when I thought I was strong enough - to overcome - you creep up and I’m back to square one”
Following Kimbra’s rework of her track 2016 “On Top of the World” with Snoop Dogg earlier this year, and with Redinho adding the steamy “Mmm Mmm” (ft. Basement Jazz vocalist, Vula) to his string of collaborative projects, the two artists seem to have the collab game down to a tee: less snakes and more ladders on their way to the top.
Redinho
Redinho’s “Square One (ft. Kimbra)” is out now with Roya.
Follow Redinho:
Follow Kimbra:
Written by Alex Farrow-Hamblen
Edited by Jaclyn Siu