Skip to main content

P.I.C. Emcee & Musician Steven E. Mallorca Re-emerges As Sulu & Excelsior with Eddie Romero Single "Up to You" (Slow Jam King Productions)


"One of the running themes [throughout] Eddie Romero can be heard in the opening and closing tracks of the album, when I rhyme: "shall I croon or shall I spit?" Basically, I wanted to play with the image of an old school crooner, "a slow jam king," that all of a sudden flips his ballad on its ear and starts rhyming all fast and frenetic. On the first single, "Up to You" this idea is in full effect; to me, I feel like the melody is really sweet and romantic, but I wanted to contrast this with a fast and somewhat hectic beat that hits hard and could be equally at home with Big Daddy Kane rhyming over it."

- Steve Mallorca (Sulu & Excelsior)

New York-based trumpet player, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, producer, rapper, and film-maker Steven E. Mallorca's Sulu & Excelsior Facebook page self-describes his music as "Johnny Mathis meets Mos Def meets Stevie Wonder meets Nat King Cole;" a long-time member and driving force behind genre-blending Hiphopfunkpunkmamboska group P.I.C. since 2000, Mallorca has finally decided to branch of onto his own unique solo venture dubbed Sulu & Excelsior, which has been further described by Steve Mallorca as a quasi-name for his live backing band, a homage to 1950-60's old school Doo-Wop & Soul group names, as well as a thinly-veiled Captain Sulu-Excelsior (Star Trek) reference. "Building on the genre-bending Hip-Hop of his work with P.I.C. Mallorca takes Sulu & Excelsior further into hyphenated musical territory, as he plays all the instruments and vocal performances with nods to influences that span 1940's and 50's crooning, 60's and 70's Soul, and 80's and 90's Hip-Hop... Mallorca was in the process of writing songs for a new film project, when he decided to develop them further, and this collection of tunes eventually became Sulu & Excelsior's debut album, Eddie Romero," Steven E. Mallorca wrote within his on-site Bandcamp description of his latest project.


Eddie Romero's 14 contained tracks were entirely "produced, arranged, composed, and performed by Steven E. Mallorca; all vocals and instruments performed by Steven E. Mallorca," reads Eddie Romero's Bandcamp liner notes. I think the best way I could possibly attempt to describe Sulu & Excelsior's approach is by describing his Flea Market Funk-debuted "Up to You" as an utterly infectious Neo-Soul/Funk banger, which I would likely compare to what an imagined Stones Throw emcee-assisted Mayer Hawthorne Hip-Hop album might sound like. Steve Mallorca's debut as Sulu & Excelsior, Eddie Romero, is currently available for $7.00 (or more) from his personal Bandcamp page; while "Up to You," the first of roughly seven planned music videos from an accompanying "visual album," was premiered over at Flea Market Funk just the other day. "'Up to You" has Sulu crooning over serious upbeat Soul drums with haunting organ behind and a driving bassline that will no doubt get them dancing. Harmonies all around, Sulu has some influences near and dear to him, and when he drops the mic to spit a rhyme, you see the extent of his musical abilities. The horn stabs are killer too, Mr. Sulu plays the Hell of that trumpet, as well. This is definitely a fresh, genre-bending long-player no doubt," Flea Market Funk founder DJ Prestige exuberantly wrote this past Monday.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

[W]reckless, Topless American Youth: Lana del Rey - "Born 2 Die" (Britney Spears Birthday 30)

Lana del Rey [Lizzy Grant] effectively became 2011's "It Girl" with the release of her phenomenal debut single, "Video Games" (Stranger) . Like many struggling singer-songwriters, Grant has been signed, dropped, and significantly changed her public image since bursting onto the scene (2009). With that said, it can be assumed that Lana del Rey has collected just as many "haters" as she has avid supporters. To be perfectly honest, the only other artist I can think of that made this much commotion... garnered so much wide-spread buzz/hate and critical acclaim -- right out of the gates -- with just one track is Britney Spears . And maybe in this post- Mike musical era, that's the true synthesis of Pop Culture: Britney Lynn Spears . After months of repeated teasing and speculation, Lana del Rey 's major label debut, Born 2 Die will [finally] be released this coming Jan. 30-31, 2012. Pitchfork reports that it will feature "Off to The Ra

3 Feet High & Rising: Band of Bearded Brothers Cellar Door Moon Crow Unleash Rollicking Single "Whistler" from Upcoming Blues Rock EP (Bandcamp, self-released)

Whistler by Cellar Door Moon Crow British Rock 2-piece band Cellar Door Moon Crow mysteriously found and Followed The Witzard (@SharpCheddar856) on Twitter a few months ago. Their Facebook About section simply lists a brief, yet fitting, mission statement: "Band ~ Beards ~ Brothers Goodwin brothers Phil & Tommy . Sheffield, UK " and their accompanying Biography section contains a similar refrain: "Band ^ Beards ^ Brothers," as well as their Bandcamp page. There really isn't much else to be known about twin brothers Phil & Tom Goodwin , aside from the fact that they make infectious, down and dirty Rock "N" Roll —all entirely written, recorded, produced, and mixed in-house by Cellar Door Moon Crow (CDMC) themselves. CDMC 's Bandcamp page often tags their musical output as " British Rock , Rock, Blues Rock , two-piece band, Sheffield " and I would best liken their sound to a stylistic mix between The Black Keys , Thir

"Let Me Shine for You:" Lindsay Lohan for Playboy (Winter 2011-12 Leak)

Lindsay Lohan essentially embodies exactly "What NOT to Do In Hollywood :" Fame, fortune, success... sex, drugs & Rock "N" Roll . Within a fairly short period of time, Lohan somehow managed to obtain a plentiful helping of POWER @ a very young age. This gradual rise-downfall was captured on film; Between 1998-2010, she portrayed a wide array of roles across the silver screen in movies including: Mean Girls, Bobby , Herbie Fully Loaded , Georgia Rule, Machete , and Freaky Friday . Between rapid-paced film shoots, Lindsay Lohan also found time to record 2 Pop Rock albums for Casablanca , Speak (2004) and A Litter More Personal-Raw (2005). Needless to say, Lindsay Lohan has gotten roped up in a lot of troubles and woes with the law over the last 3-5 years... a vicious cycle of drugs, arrest, court, rehab, "daddy issues," jail time [Repeat]. That's the pure basics of it - But Google that shit for additional info, if necessary. Towards the end of