Skip to main content

3 Feet High & Rising: Chris McClenney Sonically Paints D'Angelo "Left & Right," OutKast, Mayer Hawthorne & The Vincent Guaraldi Trio-evoking Portrait In Two EP (McClenney Music)



"When I first read this phrase at 16, it blew my mind: "all songs written, performed, produced, and arranged by D'Angelo." After that point, I knew [that was] exactly what I wanted to do for my debut: write, produce, and play all the instruments on my project (I recently learned, it was Prince who inspired D'Angelo to do this). To express myself to the full capacity of my abilities and strive to take a similar challenging, but rewarding, journey as one of my idols to create the debut that I truly wanted," singer, song-writer, producer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist Chris McClenney wrote within A Written Note On Portrait In Two. McClenney's self-released Portrait In Two EP, which was just released this past Friday, January 13th and followed by a Saturday Blue Not Jazz Club release show, was preceded by critically-acclaimed singles "Headlines," "Otherside," and "What You Mean to Me." McClenney has previously released a Soulection White Label: 014 EP and submitted production work to Atlanta-based emcee Rome Fortune and "Outta Sight / Dark Lavender Interlude" from D.R.A.M.'s recent Atlantic Records debut, Big Baby D.R.A.M.


Ahead of his Portrait In Two EP, Chris McClenney unveiled two unique re-imagining remixes of his own productions, "Tell Me" and "Pearl" (featured within the EP) on which "fans will hear a familiar Dance music styling from Chris reminiscent of his earlier more Club-tuned works." Portrait In Two EP really is one Hell of an expansive, seamlessly genre-blending effort, which at times throughout, reminds me of OutKast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, D'Angelo, Method Man & Redman's "Left & Right," The Roots, Mayer Hawthorne's A Strange Arrangement, and The Vince Guaraldi Trio's beloved Peanuts-popularized compositions. Portrait In Two EP is currently available for your streaming, downloading, and general enjoyment on Soundcloud, Spotify, Apple Music, Google play, AmazonMP3, etc. from Chris McClenney's own McClenney Music imprint in all of it's genre-blending 10-track glory. I'm sure this isn't the last we'll be hearing from The Talented Mr. McClenney and maybe, with any hope, we'll get a full-length Chris McClenney-produced Rome Fortune project!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"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...
1 comment
Read more

[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 comments
Read more

Liberty Bell Cracked In 1/2: Ween - "Freedom of '76" (Gene Ween's Final Send-Off)

Chocolate & Cheese (1994) was one of the first albums I bought with my own money. I was in some sort of BMG Music Club , where you'd buy 5 CD's and then get 10 for "FREE." It was all sent through mail order and you picked the titles from some special booklet. I'm almost positive that Chocolate & Cheese's side boob-baring album cover was what initially drew me in... mind you, I was 12-15 and the zany Ween logo/middle finger CD graphic really didn't hurt either. Honestly, I forget how I really felt about it @ the time, but a few years later, my older cousin Josh told me that Ween were this BIG college "jam band." CKY did some sort pf 93.3 radio takeover to promote their new album and played "Freedom of '76" late that night on air. Needless to say, I re-visited Chocolate & Cheese @ about 20-something this go 'round and I fucking loved it! Ween were really weird, yet talented... almost too talented. I can vaguel...
1 comment
Read more