Sometimes you hear a voice that is just so smooth and pure that you have to drop what you are doing, close your eyes, and float away on the giant iridescent bubble that’s been blown from your speakers.
I first heard R&B musician Gabriel Garzón-Montano on one of my favorite online music broadcasts, The Bandcamp Weekly, which always does an excellent job of finding gems from independent labels from all over, but many know him from Drake’s sample of his track, “6 8” for the rapper’s recent song “Jungle”. As helpful as a Drake endorsement can be for exposing up-and-coming artists, I feel like Garzón-Montano was already destined for greatness, Drizzy notwithstanding.
Everything about this track feels vintage — the reference to Donny Hathaway’s seminal album, the video of the older dude getting down (lol) – -but also timeless in message. This phrase crops up every so often in popular and independent music and always feels like a sullen response to upsetting news. The refrain sounds so utterly exhausted and defeated to me. As in, “What can you do? Everything is everything.” And though the answer to the question is never be straightforward, at least the music offers some respite, however brief.
Check out Garzón-Montano’s entire EP, Bishouné: Alma del Huila right here, and stay tuned to Track Of The Day for more recommendations every day of the week.