Kennedy Tareotu 'Stay Alive' Review

Stay Alive (The Ghost Act/Kennedy Tareotu) Review

Composed and written by – Kennedy Tareotu

Produced by – Kennedy Tareotu

Back ups – Kennedy Tareotu

INSTRUMENTATION

It sounded like a movie soundtrack, there! Even from the start. But what people didn’t understand is that it was passing a message. Let’s get that message hidden in the instrumentation.

‘The night played its normal sound, the crickets chirping. Two lads enter a car to drive off, a bomb hit just around, and gun shots next, and the job is done. The lads are dead and the cops chasing the culprits while the ambulance drives to the crime scene’

That is the message in the start of this song, and this message was passed with Sounds alone, before the bringing in of an opera oriented back up and a piano play afterwards.

The instrumentation was austere with few instrumentals.

SINGING SENSATION

At the first stanza of the chorus, I felt it came in too sharp and left us with a lot of Pro Active feel (the ability of an act to intentionally be solemn/ subtle or calm in a song to give it an emotional quotient and to make it look professional). The first stanza seemed empty, only one voice and then a second chorus came in adding a shallow back up.

The second verse got the song going. The lyrics was strong and convincing, it was the reason to listen, then afterwards we had a little climaxed chorus, with a shallow back up. I felt the singer nearly crying in this verse, most especially when we sang ‘Stay Alive your mama said, stay where you are’. That’s what his singing sensation gave.

The singer felt the need to be emotional and to pass a message than to sing, even at the end of the song doing few scales and taking little adlibs, I felt the holding back.

LYRICAL CONTENT

‘Stay Alive, Stay Alive.

You wake up in the morning; silently you wake your son.

You have him by your side; surely you are the one he watches.

You get yourself a wife; a beautiful woman.

You leave her side to do wrongs; they are the once you would make cry.

Stay Alive, Stay Alive

Stay where you are.

You may be just a young boy; riding his life to nowhere.

You fight for a woman or something small; with crack (dope) in your eyes.

You feel on top of the world, like you cannot be dropped (killed).

You’ve done so many wrongs, now it is time to run.

Stay Alive your mama said, stay where you are’.

This lyric is emotional enough, it passes two messages telling a man doing so many wrongs to look back to his family and think if he wants them to cry. He should live a life that would keep him alive.

The next topic fell on a young boy who lives his life not up to expectations, he was disobedient and wayward, and he has done so many wrong now he runs for his life. They are both dead in the song, that’s why the singer was giving an end adlib that sounded like he was mourning or complaining or crying.

Listen to the end and the sounds the singer makes, they sounded painful, grieved and emotional.

COMPOSITION

This is a song which everything was done by just one act, I have no idea why.

Composing a song like this might seem easy, but what made it a complex song is the hidden messages and the profound lyric. The hidden message in every chirp of the cricket to tell you it is night, to the sounds and soprano of the opera.

The Composition is good, done by one head from start to finish is scary, maybe it would have been better if they were more heads on it.

OVERALL REMARK

The greatest gift of Kennedy Tareotu is to write a song with a superb message. That is what I see here, a strong message to everyone doing something wrong that is life threatening, and all it said was Stay Alive for your loved once.

A great sense of Touch.

Solomon Lange 'Na gode' Review

Na gode (Solomon Lange)a KENNEDY TAREOTU REVIEW

INSTRUMENTAL

This song sounds as if it went through the traditional scheme of work to be able to bear its professionalism.

The instrumental alone is a great master piece of African induction and tradition, starting with a string solemnly that showed a lot of emotional quotient and yet in the African traditional method. Never have I seen a Hausa traditional song this well presented.

The use of our own instruments as a choice of the instrumentation helped the song to be well accepted.

SINGING SENSATION

The greatest emotion in this song comes from the vocals of the act and his back up.

Solomon Lange has a great vocal presence with a great technique that suits the song. In his vocals you would hear absolute richness, vocal strength, emotions, you can nearly cry if you are sad listening to this song.

Despite the fact that he sings in a dialect that not everyone could interpret, the singer was good enough to make repetitions that makes the song sing-able and follow-able by listening ears. It’s an easy to remember and has an appealing sound, one rich enough to be an outstanding movie soundtrack.

LYRICAL CONTENT

‘New Life, deliverance, help, victory, family, friends…you’ve given me, I thank you’.

‘I am worshiping, giving thanks, for you wiped away tears, washed away sins, giveth peace, liberty, healing, wisdom…I thank you’.

These are a simple translation of the majority of the lyrics of this song.

It passes a clear message and yes I can say maybe no poetic essence was necessary, but never can anyone say that.

In a gospel song the poetic license to give the song a rich meaning and strong vocabulary isn’t sometimes used, because of the will to pass a clear message; so lyrically, this song did come out so plain. Plain isn’t a good word for musicals but sometimes plain is all we need. Solomon Lange did not too well in the lyrics, but how much can we question is bad when we know his intension is just to say thank you throughout? So I accept the lyrics as suitable enough.

COMPOSITION

Hearing this song is hearing good music. It’s an alluring sound and a pleasing song. Am looking forward to seeing this song used as soundtracks, it fits that purpose.

This is the best traditional song I have heard from the Hausa region, even though it can’t be compared to a lot of great traditional African songs, it’s a step forward from that region.

OVERALL REMARK

This song is well done, a great traditional song, a gospel, a soundtrack. There is nothing more I would have expected.

KENNEDY TAREOTU REVIEW.

Matthew Mole 'Whale' Review

Matthew Mole (Whale) a Kennedy Tare-otu Review

INSTRUMENTATION

Alternative rock is to have an instrumentation that follows the theory of basic soft Rock and a mixture of purity in austerity and subtlety. This beat gave us the up and downs on rock, from one instrument to the other, knowing when to come in and knowing when to let it be. It gave the feel of Alternative, soft Rock and even tiny little country, and once in a while a feel of lullaby made this beat great in switch. You have no idea where the instrumentation is always leading you.

SINGING SENSATION

In an Alternative nothing wants to be heard than a voice with the ability to make subtle sounds like a shallow opera, and of course the ability to sing soft rock.

The singing sensation of this song happens to have the necessity of Alternative, even if the act didn’t do much; he was interested in only passing a message. It’s an above the average mark because of the great mixture of voices, that sounded shallow beneath the lead, and the humming that gave an emotional quotient. Emotional quotient is needed in an alternative song, that’s what differentiates it from soft rock.

Let’s take a look at the song Oblivion by Bastille, number 1 effect in such a great alternative is the emotional quotient coming from both the singer and the instrumentation, and alternative doesn’t ever forget to have a great solemn back up that is mostly masculine, and adds more emotional quotient and makes them sound like a band which they are of course.

Matthew mole still gave us a great alternative singing sensation, even if he lowered the presence of a few necessities, like the back up, and didn’t give much of the alternative melodious humming that makes you feel more emotion in the song. If you still don’t understand let’s take a look at the Song ‘Never let me go’, by Florence and the Machine.

Florence gave a very deep effect to the song by making people hum underneath her words like they were doing a little opera thing. And you have to believe in your back up’s with necessary melodious parting, which Florence made her back up do at the end of the song, when singing ‘Never let me go’ repeatedly.

Matthew Mole could have increased the singing sensation of the song with more humming and voice parting at intervals.

LYRICAL CONTENT

‘Open up your hands, synchronize your plans and find a way to go.

Open up your hands, synchronize your plans and find the way home.

If you run, run, run, run away disobey your father.

And wait and see there is a whale in the sea for you.

Open up your hands, synchronize your plans and find a way to go.

Open up your hands, synchronize your plans and find the way home.

Cover up the sky with clouds, supply the Earth with rain’.

There is a prominent feature of the arrangement of this lyric, with little rhythmical structure and a small sequence of words.

‘Open up your hands, synchronize your plans.

Find a way, find the way to go, home.

Wait and see, there is a whale in the sea.

Repetitions were also involved to give it a rhythmic stanza of arrangement.

Run, run , run.

The last words in these lyric (Cover up the sky with clouds, supply the Earth with rain) weren’t necessary to me. I feel it has a meaning nearly to what the song portrays, but absolutely still out of the message. It might mean let the heaven give blessings, but it is hard to phantom how it relates to the child he is advising to obey his or her parents, that’s the way to abstain from troubles as a kid.

But the lyrical content is above average, because Matthew showed us he could write professionally with little words, but a message and a perfect arrangement.

 COMPOSITION

Never have I seen an alternative song well arranged instrumentally like this. It was 60 percent instrumentation and a 40 percent singing with a well arranged lyric.

Matthew mole gave us a great feel and a great mixture.

OVERALL REMARK

This song isn’t just listenable; it is perfect for the hearing and helps me to think Alternative is growing in Africa. Acts like this makes it happen.

Kennedy Tareotu Review

Nominees for the Marsh Up Africa musical records of the year.

While the Marsh Up Africa record holders research ended on the 13th of December, a lot of great musical records were made and some were broken. Amongst them all, we give you the best musical records that were made this year, and these four happens to be the nominees for the Marsh Up Africa record of the year.
1. Wizkid - made a record of over 50 hit songs this year in less than 6 years.
2. Kennedy Tareotu - made a lot of musical records this year, but two made their way to this list as  Kennedy Tareotu made the record for the widest vocal range in Africa, spanning over 7.9 Octaves - 8 Octaves, and singing the lowest note ever taken in an African song in the song 'Better and Greater'.
3. Sarkodie - has been known as the fastes rapper in Africa for 3 years at a stretch and almost lost out to Mwanche of Malawi this year before reclaiming the record. This record made it to the list.

Kennedy Tareotu wide Octave and lowest note, against Wizkid 50 hit songs, and Sarkodie quick fast rap pace, are the nominees for the Marsh Up Africa Record of the Year.

Mi Casa 'Turn You on' Review

Mi Casa (Turn you on) a Kennedy Tareotu Review

INSTRUMENTAL

This song gave nearly an average instrumentation. The count, the rhythm and a later simple progression that came in. we were nearly listening to the same sound for long, which makes a subtle instrumentation boring if the beat doesn’t get into a progression that would catch the mind of the audience for a while, or if the singer doesn’t become so free mixing technique and skill in it. But I cannot neglect that the Instrumentation in the song is the best thing the song has. One way or the other the instrumentation kind of kept us going.

SINGING SENSATION

Singing an R & B song has quite a lot of technique to make it sound just great, even the average R and B song, I would take Chris brown ‘Should’ve Kissed you’ as my example. The song is a typical average R & B song, but it has the meaning of Rhythm and Blues in it: the Rhythm and a shallow upbeat in the instrumentation and always a subtleness to make it feel like it is on a Blue’s line.

The magic of a great R & B song is to mix both Rhythm and subtleness or blues together, that means you have the freedom to make your singing sensation technical, made of shallow upbeat, subtle but free with adlibs or vocal show of. I gave you a very average R&B song by Chris Brown, in fact nearly a boring song by him. Yet I could still see the right instrumentation of an R&B in that song.

Coming back to Mi Casa, I feel they gave too much Pro active feel to it, absolutely not the type of song to sing forever subtle. Listening to the first stanza, I was impressed, believing they would take me up as the time goes, so it’s the perfect way to start. Then the beat made it better, by adding some rhythmic trend, but it back noticed that even the adlibs are calm, quiet and skills remained limited in this song….all through, like they were intentionally leaving the instrumentation to do all the works. It’s an average singing sensation for me, cool beginning technique, but the continuity of singing only subtle all day long in a song that has little emotional quotient makes the R&B not complete.

COMPOSITION

Let’s take a look at another average R&B song, Rihanna ft Chris brown ‘Nobody business’, this is a hit song, but gave an average composition, yet it has more R&B feel than this Mi Casa song. The instrumentation from start to finish is never relaxed and never noisy; the singers are never relaxed and never shouting.

Mi Casa gave a cool great composition, not a lot of African act can write this type of song, which makes the song even a better song than a lot of African songs, but he would have done better with a little vocal switch up and down and a mixture of technique.

LYRICAL CONTENT

  

"Turn You On"

Getting to know you girl getting to know your world
Exploring your every curve learning the lines you serve
Can you let me into your space,
I promise that I won't touch I won't take but for now now
Respecting your every move choosing what not to do
'Cuz I know your true worth girl I truly value you
Ohhh

I just wanna turn you on girl, said I just wanna turn you on
I just wanna turn you in girl
I just wanna, I just wanna, I just wanna turn you on

I just wanna turn you on
(I just wanna turn you on baby)
I just wanna turn you on
(I just wanna turn you on baby)

My interest is only you and everything you do
I wanna give a shot and see what we can do
Stretch out your trust and let me in
Lemme prove to you babe,
that a real man still exists

Now
What makes your tic tok
What make you fall in love
What makes you wake up

I wanna know how turn you on

What makes you laugh a lot
what do you look for
What do u not like

I wanna know, ohh

I just wanna turn you on
(I just wanna turn you on baby)
I just wanna turn you on
(I just wanna turn you on baby) [x2]

I, I just wanna, I just wanna, I just wanna turn you on
I, I just wanna, I just wanna, I just wanna turn you on

The Lyrics of this song is on an average composition, though I loved the way it was straight to the point and the way the words were arranged not to sound promiscuous.

OVERALL REMARK

This song remains a Professional song, with a great play and a sufficient vocal contribution even if I expected more.

                                                                                       

                                                                                         Kennedy Tareotu Review