"Bring Me Closer" by JJ Bygrave and Shanade
Review
Producer, bassman & Beat Rebel Records founder Justin Bygrave this week (Friday to be precise) releases his latest collaboration, linking up this time (after singles with Brudez ("Here and Now") and Princess D Krazy ("Perfect Imperfection")) with Shanade Morrow, with whom he's played many times over the years prior to this joint venture.
This one's called "Bring Me Closer" and it goes to prove I think that the best collaborations bring out of each person involved music which I suspect neither would have made otherwise.
I suppose that the best way to describe what I assume to be the common ground they share musically might be R&B: though I get away with that because it's such a broad term these days. Both, in different ways are interesting composers in this genre as they quite happily embrace contemporary sounds & notions yet have a feel for & understanding of the history of the music & this frequently shapes their sounds: Shanade is apt to dip into the jazz side of the legacy, Justin to the dubwise. Thus working together may involve a large area of crossover interest but also different slants: which two identical writers might simply duplicate, the potential for enrichment is available here.
As I say, I can't quite imagine either coming up with this track left to themselves. It's an icy sort of detached groove, quite a long way from the warm ones both are known for. Thus it stands out from their previous work & as a new pairing, constitutes something new: which is as it should be. Who wants some cosy, predictable mutual appreciation vanity track? Not me & by the sounds of it, not them either.
From what Justin tells me, Shanade brought her lyrical talents to the party and frankly you can tell: they are very much her style of reflective personal growth and emotional journey description: in her own words it is concerned with "rediscovering yourself after being lost for sometime and celebrating being you".
The tune itself (or I suppose more accurately the arrangement) is a sort of symphonic soul one. As Justin told me "..while writing this track I only had one person in mind to do the vocal and luckily for me Shanade agreed to be a part of it": I take his point. In addition to the adult emotional slant of the words, he needed someone of her vocal skills to do justice to the music but equally importantly with her taste to keep the mood cool and classy & not wreck it with flashy embellishments nor excessive volume.
As noted in my report from Godiva 2024, Shanade has a load of new material which definitely sounded to me unlike anything else she's done before: I still look forwards to reporting on those songs as they emerge. That sort of mindset of breaking new ground musically may help explain her presence on this song.
Justin I imagine will continue to release collaborative singles, presumably with various people, though he tells me that he & Shanade plan more joint material, so I guess that this series will not be purely one offs.
