Concert Review: Jordan Rakei, The Origin Tour
November 13, 2019
“We’re taking it back to the 2014 Soundcloud days,” said singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Jordan Rakei before playing a fan favorite, Add the Bass Line, from his 2014 EP, Groove Curse. It can sound a little odd when someone says, “back in the day” and they’re referencing 2014, but we are five years post what may have been the gold era for the website, and a lot has changed since. Rakei, a native of New Zealand, built a following on the music sharing website, garnering millions of streams and thousands of followers, one of which included me.
In the early 2010s, Rakei, in addition to artists like Tom Misch, Yuseef Dayes, Alfa Mist, Kamaal Williams, and many others, were a part of a burgeoning movement in the UK (London, specifically) of artists reimagining the soul music of the late-90s and early-00s, heavily steeped in the tradition of the Soulquarians. Five years later, the once fledgling website has grown up, and its children have too.
*****
On Tuesday, November 12th, Rakei paid a visit to The Foundry at the Fillmore Philadelphia in support of his recently released 3rd studio album, Origin.
Beginning the night, Rakei took the stage, accompanied by his band, performing Midnight Mischief, a simmering slow groove driven by the Rhodes piano that crescendos, and ultimately breaks to a Dilla like rhythm which was used as a springboard to transition to Rakei’s song, A Tribe Called Government.
Is Jordan Rakei a Sixers Fan?
Throughout the night Rakei was congenial, making banter with the crowd, asking how far the Sixers would make it in the playoffs, if the Sixers would make the finals, and even dedicating his song Eye to Eye (a song about the breakdown in communication, and the subsequent frustration from said breakdown) to Ben Simmons’ [non-existent] 3-point shot (a fitting song given the fan base’s frustration with Simmons’ lack of shooting). Before the game he even invited Sixers Center Joel Embiid to the concert via Twitter, though the team had a game, suggesting the Sixers big man request a load management (rest) day. Ultimately, this series of events have caused me to ask – is Jordan Rakei a Sixers fan? Was he just pandering, knowing his audience? (Probably). This is worthy of an investigation.
Having seen Rakei just a year ago, there was a bit of pause – how much would his show change in a relatively short amount of time? Well, the answer is a lot! With the exception of his drummer, Jim Macrae, the composition of his band was entirely different. Most notably, Rakei was accompanied by Jon Harvey on bass and Imraan Paleker on guitar and auxiliary keyboards, both of which aided as background vocalists, something that wasn’t present in his previous show. Additionally, Rakei was also accompanied this time by percussionist, Ernesto Marichales, whose playing elevated songs like Wildfire, Talk to Me, and Rolling into One, enhancing the Latin-funk feel to each song.
Rakei closed the night by playing Add the Bass Line, a song built around two dissonant minor chords and a dominating bass line, followed by rhythmically Latin-infused Talk to Me, and closing with Mind’s Eye as the encore selection.
