Mahalia

ONE TO WATCH: IYAMAH

Here at Oíche, we love all things soul, embracing the traditional genre as well as it's worthy & diversified counterpart - neo-soul. After a successful tour with her neo-soulsister Mahalia, Brighton beauty IYAMAH is unleashing her fiery soulful RnB vibes all over our "one to watch" radar.

Evident in her style is an artistic background, encouraged by a creative upbringing and influenced by empowering female artists like Alicia Keys and Erykah Badu. Unique to what we have witnessed so far from Iyamah is her ability to simplify the complex, to strip back the lyrics to create meaning and to let them shine brightly over a clean and tidy backing track. A delivery that is minimalist, with a result that is anything but.

In her debut single 'Cryptic Love', the London-based songstress exposes herself as a fool in love but a warrior in heartbreak, and the result is a powerful new-age love ballad that is both an instant hit and a sign of what's to come. As credible as a gentle pianist as she is a topline Drum n' Bass writer, Iyamah's silky smooth vocals paired with her rhythmic melodies leave us not only certain of but tickled with excitement about the future of soul music.

Written by Aoife Chaney

PICK OF THE WEEK: MAHALIA - 'SOBER'

Oíche's 'pick of the week' & just in time to get us buzzing for her Grand Social headline show tonight, is SOBER by Birmingham artist, MAHALIA.

'Sober' is both empowering & vulnerable, with a little bit of heartbreak and a lot of "fuck you". Mahalia's psycho-acoustic sound envelopes her audience in a soulful embrace, and we find a pattern in her music where she so often speaks a universal language that is clear and transparent with honesty.

Mahalia invites us in with soothing vocals, powered by a groove-fuelled baseline & boom-bap beats. She channels her inner Lauryn Hill with an Amy Winehouse-esque flow and a deliverance that is uniquely her own. Mahalia has created a girl-power track that becomes in itself the very love hangover cure she has been searching for.

Written by Aoife Chaney