From the Neo-Soul warmth of experimental Belgian duo, YellowStraps, continues the rollout of their quarantine mixtape, the Yellockdown Project. Enlisting a barrage of featuring artistry ranging from vocalists to producers and instrumentalists, YellowStraps have slowly put together one of this epoch’s most intriguing, mellow collections reflecting of the times they create from. In the last three weeks alone, they’ve recruited French producer, Crayon for the laid-back, rainy-day Closer; French rapper and vocalist, Lord Esperanza for the bubbly, jazzy Visage; Icelandic guitarist, Stefan Thormar for the soft, soulful Fallin; and now French producer Majeur Mineur with Dutch rapper and vocalist, Cero Ismael for the slow, emotionally inclined What You Want.
Enlisting the talent is one thing but making the coalesce underneath a sole banner of continuance without removing what it is that makes each individual included unique, is quite another. Thankfully, YellowStraps are veterans in collaboration by the very nature of their duo, and in combination with their incredibly wide-ranging knack for production, instrumentation, and songwriting of their own, the two are natural composers for a collaborative collection like the Yellockdown Project.
With the mixtape now living at seven tracks – each with an incredibly individualistic aesthetic – YellowStraps have put on a clinic of how to bring so many different artists together, by simply utilizing the framework of their own established sound to direct each track’s texture and tether them akin.
Be on the lookout for more from YellowStraps as they continue their collaborative efforts across Europe during quarantine. The project is sure to continue shaping the greater Neo-Soul spectrum, mixing in the emotion of the strange times we all find ourselves in.
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