Too many people consider soul music to be the province of decades past; the genre was welded together in the '60s and '70s, they think, and any new artists are just retreading the standard themes of yesteryear. Mark de Clive-Lowe, however, has done more than give soul a fresh paint job: he dropped a new engine in that sonofabitch.
Tide's Arising's success is due to several factors, the most obvious of which is its inclusion -- no, celebration -- of diverse influences. The record is a vibrant pastiche of soul, funk, jazz and hip-hop, all mashed together with the kind of creativity and polish that comes from technical skill so indisputable it's almost irrelevant (except as a means to channel the music). De Clive-Lowe spent much of his youth playing classical piano, but beyond his virtuosity on the keys, there's little of the eighteenth century here.
No, Tide's Arising is all about dancing (and we don't mean the minuet). Which isn't to say that its brains are in its relentlessly undulating ass; "Slide", which opens the record after a minute-long intro of smoove keyboard-and-bass action and drum crescendo, might be founded upon four-on-the-floor, but the staccato counter-rhythms furnished by vocalists Abdul Shyllon, Bembé Segue and Lyric L provide endless opportunities for dancefloor interpretation. Even if you "don't dance", "Slide" will make you.
Most of Tide's Arising is just as accessible, and just as uncompromising. The fact that it's a dance album makes the lyrics rather secondary, but if you bother to decipher them, you'll like what you hear, especially as they're delivered in such transcendent harmonies. Vocals and music entwine beautifully on tracks like "Heaven Part II", which features spoken word from Bembé Segue, and "Traveling", with Segue's multilayered vocal tracks on the chorus and molasses-voiced MC Capitol A on the verses. Other songs, including the drumkit-and-Rhodes jam "Pino + Mashi" and the upbeat, futuristic "Sila's Theme", are more instrumentally focused chill-out intervals. The title track is the album's ultra-catchy centerpiece, with a beguiling samba-like rhythm and Abdul Shyllon's mellow but emotive singing.
De Clive-Lowe pulls off the improbable -- producing a soul record that sounds authentic and up-to-date -- by following a cardinal principle: remember the past, but don't repeat it. Listening to Tide's Arising is like meeting your new best friend: it's fun and lively, but without the shallowness that characterizes your drinking buddies. You know you're going to like it as soon as it starts, but what's really cool is how much it grows on you as it becomes more familiar.
