Fatima Yamaha’s now classic single ‘What’s A Girl To Do’ taken from the EP ‘A Girl Between Two Worlds’ saw the light of day in 2004, but it wasn’t until 10 years later that a re-release made the song truly explode. 
For many years, Fatima Yamaha was shrouded in mystery, known only to be a project led by “a young lady born to a Japanese father and a Turkish mother”. By now we all know Bas Bron is Fatima Yamaha. The Dutch producer has many guises, but Fatima Yamaha is his most enigmatic.
The album ‘Imaginary Lines’ was released in 2015 and followed the success of ‘What’s A Girl To Do’ with the fabulous single ‘Love Invaders’. Later followed by another banging club anthem ‘Araya’.
His live shows unfailingly live up to the highest expectations, offering refined house and techno complimented by virtuoso synths. But after years of selling out tours and headlining the most prestigious festivals all over the world, Bas took a year off touring to focus on new material and other ventures.
He directed, produced and made the soundtrack of the short film ‘Heian’ and recorded lots of other tracks, for many different projects. But this autumn there will finally be a new Fatima Yamaha album; ‘Spontaneous Order’. Bas shows his versatility on the album, effortlessly moving form harsh dancefloor tracks to spacious ambient drones and funky electronic pop tracks.

Venice Beach, California. A short term lease two blocks from the beach. A rental guitar and a laptop. This is what kickstarted the eclectic sound of Goldkimono. Martijn (Tienus) Konijnenburg , the songwriter and artistic lead behind this project describes his music much like his clothing style. Take a hand full of sunshine and throw it into a boardwalk thrift-shop, walk out with some comfy colourful pants and a Levy's sherpa jacket and don’t look back.

Add to that Tienus his animated style of lyric writing on a texture bed of 90s hiphop and island style pop, all with a crunch of a Dutch syrupwaffle. And voila. You can’t help but to feel kinda good. 

The laid back storytelling over punchy beat textures and wavey acoustics on first single ‘To Tomorrow’ leads to believe this artist is one to keep an ear out for.

https://linktr.ee/wearedelasoul

De La Soul is back—but did they ever really leave? After delivering their seminal debut 3 Feet High and Rising in 1989 with the production genius of Prince Paul, the New York City-bred trio of Posdnuos (Pos), Dave and Maseo went on to further impact Hip Hop culture with five more groundbreaking albums: De La Soul Is Dead (1991), Buhloone Mindstate (1993), Stakes Is High (1996), Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump (2000) and AOI: Bionix (2001). But once the digital age exploded in the late ‘90s, De La Soul’s celebrated catalog was unavailable to stream. As the decades passed, the tight-knit group forged ahead anyway—touring the world, connecting with their adoring fanbase and making music on their own terms. Following 2004’s The Grind Date, De La Soul took a hiatus from making albums, but joined The Gorillaz on the track “Feel Good Inc” which won them a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Collaboration.  In 2015, the group raised over $600,000 on Kickstarter from fans to independently release their album and the Anonymous Nobody, which was their first #1 on the Rap Albums chart, and was also nominated for a Best Rap Album Grammy.   

However, the demand for unreleased De La Soul music was palpable and the cry for access to the first six albums grew louder. Unfortunately, De La Soul was stuck riding a roller coaster of stalled negotiations, dashed hopes and dead-end conversations with their old label, and the group nearly gave up. 

"We have lived without the music up for long, these six albums haven’t been up—ever,” Pos says. “We got used to knowing they weren’t up.” In June of 2021, Tommy Boy Music was acquired by Reservoir, giving De La Soul’s catalog a new home.  In March of 2023, the six missing albums were finally available to stream.  But sadly, right before the catalog release, Dave, the beloved member of De La Soul, passed away. Though bittersweet, De La Soul preserves his legacy and the ongoing impact of their music. 

As iconic songs such as “The Magic Number”, found new life in the film Spiderman: No Way Home in 2021, De La Soul continues to resonate with a diverse population of people. 

As Pos notes, “We’ve noticed over the past several years of tour like, ‘Wow, there’s a father here with his child who also is here with their child. ‘We’re generational. To me, there’s nothing more gratifying than that. That means something. That’s telling about a group. What we were doing wasn’t just stuck to that time.”

“We really naturally been that group for everyone,” Pos says. “It was never about we’re just here for this community, that community, this set of people or these certain fans of Hip Hop culture. We see music as music. We’ve been very resilient, even being a group that didn’t have our music up [on streaming platforms]. We still had these beautiful opportunities through young people finding out about us through a commercial or Spider-Man. Now that it can all be there for people to gravitate to, I’m really happy about that.” 

De La Soul's impact on the musical landscape is immeasurable, with 3 Feet High and Rising widely regarded as one of the most influential albums of its era. Pioneering inventive sampling, playful lyrics, and eclectic beats, the album broke new ground and set a standard for creativity in the genre. Recognizing its cultural significance, the album was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress.

Emiel Heetveld is following