This June, indie soul project Satellītes, the brainchild of a newly solo Jasmine Bleile, is stirring up a lot of buzz with fans and critics alike through the new single and music video “Love and Disaster.” In the track, Bleile uses the rigidity of the bassline to forge a soft, melodic core with her vocal, allowing only fragments of the harsher textures lying just beneath the surface to find their way into the harmony at the forefront of the mix. “Love and Disaster” combines traditional R&B with a fresh, modern take on swing, but it’s a lot more than a simple hybrid of affectionate pop tones.
The vocal is always at the center of our attention in this single, and nothing ever gets in its way as we dive deeper and deeper into the vicious churn of the rhythm. The instrumental melody in the background is indeed quite captivating, but Bleile simply delivers so much energy in her performance here that, for better or worse, we’re never able to completely appreciate the intricacies of its construction. She knows how to draw all of the focus in a room towards her magnetic voice, and if she can balance it a little better in the future, I think that Satellītes will truly be the full-package that pop fans desperately need right now.
Satellītes Brings The Funk On “Love & Disaster”
To be perfectly honest, I really didn’t care for the style of the music video for “Love & Disaster.” It’s just a bit too similar to some of the material that I’ve been seeing in post-punk and electropop lately; from the ghostly shadows haunting the backdrop to the vintage-looking filtration of the imagery, I couldn’t help but find myself constantly turning away from the screen and tuning into the song specifically. There’s really nothing wrong with Bleile’s concept here, but personally, I don’t think that it captures her artistry with the gusto that it deserves.
There’s a lot more color in the bassline than there is in the video for “Love & Disaster,” and it has an almost funky edge that lends some extra swagger to the finished product. It’s not as brutish as the relentless drum play is, but it doesn’t have to be; it texturizes everything in the instrumentation with its broad groove, and though the Bleile’s vocal is the best feature in this track, it meets its match in the bumpy bottom-end that counters each of her elegant utterances.
Professionally, Bleile’s Satellītes is on fire at the moment, and despite its rather disappointing music video, “Love & Disaster” is still an ace summer single from an awesomely talented artist and songwriter. We’ll likely have to wait for a sophomore record to know exactly where she’s going, and more specifically, what she’s doing with this new sound, but based on what I’ve heard in this tenacious little track, I’m confident that whatever she decides to do, it’s going to be worth taking a look at.
-review by Clay Burton
