Orchestrated Neighbours pools the talents of several young African Nova Scotian and Indigenous artists with that of the Bela String Quartet. Veering from the Quartet’s usual contemporary classical and pop standard offerings, Orchestrated Neighbours is a fully-produced Hip-Hop and R&B record with tons of mass potential and a sophistication befitting a string quartet.
The project brings together the combined writing efforts of Todd Googoo, Jah’Mila, Zamani Millar, Edwin Hull, Mitchell Paquette, Chudi Harris, Shay Pitts, Wolf Castle, Paollo13, Jody Upshaw, Jerico States, and Jade Bennett; with the addition of a professional production team and, of course, Bela Strings. It sounds commercial in a calculated way, while still retaining the artistry and arrangement
The record opens with the piano track for “Together We Can” – a pretty conventional hip-hop build up, where the piano loops and is progressively joined by more and more instruments. Strings are introduced in a minimalist way at first, and I kind of love this subversion. 40 seconds in and the “floor” drops from the beat, leaving only the sound of the strings suspended in midair and lightly sprinkled with bright chimes. Now you hear the string quartet, and the character of this orchestrated sound immediately stands apart from the sample work typical of the genre. You are still processing this when the vocals return in numbers and take you to the anthem hook, “Together we can, divided we fall!” I’m in.
The vocal work is altogether great, with tight, well-arranged harmonies full of soul. All rapping segments are delivered with confidence and ring crystal-clear.
As mentioned before, an unsuspecting ear could easily mistake this record for a more conventional rap production, and that comes with trappings as well as merit. The lyrics don’t stretch too far in terms of originality or cleverness, with some notable exceptions. The record, thankfully, largely stays away from tired lyric tropes like boasting and hustling, but these elements (arguably integral to the aesthetic) are present and may fatigue you, depending on your tolerance. That being said, the messages manage to feel genuine and avoid falling into condescension or overproduction.
My favourite track is without a doubt “Can’t Get Up”. It starts with a funky dancehall-meets-highlife guitar riff, backed by a pumping, breathing synth bass line along with the string quartet for added atmosphere. The hook is effective, and I love how the rap switches to a triplet-feel halfway through the verse. The song oscillates between bouncy trap and party-time dancehall, which perfectly matches the narrative of present hangover vs last night’s party. The string arrangement when the verse kicks in and pumps up the dancing is beautiful and epic; this song really drives. Changes are brilliantly punctuated using a great sampled drum-roll where a sequenced one would have sufficed. Nice.
The beats are generally well produced. They seem a bit on the repetitive side for my taste, but that’s a stylistic choice rather than a shortcoming. I would have liked to see more done here, if only because the accessibility of production tools to young artists has made me hungry for weird and surprising studio tricks. Sampling and slicing the quartet segments would have been really cool, for example. There may be missed opportunities, but don’t get me wrong, what we have here in terms of production is excellent across the board.
It also bears mentioning that the string sections are consistently beautiful and expertly produced. The minimalist approach to the beats has left room for the strings to shine. I found” Two Ways” to be perhaps the most forgettable cut in the record on first listen, but the strings really lift it up. I love the little string tag that follows “enough said” at the end. The overall effect is great; you could just listen to the songs, enjoying them and letting the strings fade into the background, and the record stands on its own. However, if you train your ears to target and appreciate the strings, the amount of nuance and care comes up so enjoyably as to make it a distinct listening experience. Zeroing in on the strings while listening to Orchestrated Neighbours feels like finding a golden Easter egg.
Orchestrated Neighbours finds its conclusion with “Ghost”. This track features the best writing on the record, in my opinion. The hook is overflowing with sincerity and feeling, with a predictive cadence than then breaks with, “Honey don’t go, don’t ghost.” The theme is very contemporary, yet still manages to get away with this little bit of clever writing without stumbling over itself or becoming a gimmick. A part of me really wishes they used “Don’t Go” in all repetitions and saved “Ghost” for the very end, but I’m really into this track.
Orchestrated Neighbours is a very enjoyable album, a great commercial production, and a captivating, refreshingly interesting outlet for a string quartet. All in one.