Tulisa - When I Go Home

A few weeks ago we wrote a few musings on what Tulisa's solo material might be like and how excited we are for her debut album. At the moment, any details regarding the record are rather sketchy but there have been a couple of tantalising hints about who she's working with on the project, and we were very happy to hear one of them is Talay Riley.

Some might know him better for writing hits like Jessie J's Who's Laughing Now or featuring on Chipmunk's Look For Me, but we've been loving Talay's own material here on the blog for a while now, especially the ace Make You Mine.

Here's what Talay had to say about working with Tulisa:

"Tulisa and I recorded a song called When I Go Home before she got The X Factor job. I really hope it can be a single but I’m not sure what will happen because of her TV commitments. The song sounds like Chris Brown and Jordan Sparks’s No Air and has a Kings Of Leon-style *guitar breakdown. It’s something very different for Tulisa."

Now, I don't know about you, but that sounds all kind of epic. Another of other reports have suggested that Tulisa might disregard her urban roots for a more 'indie' influenced sound on her solo material, which only serves to whet our appetite more for the first snippets of actual songs that must surely emerge over the coming months.

In the meantime, Tulisa has been very forthcoming about how much she'd like to collaborate with her X Factor 'muffins' Little Mix - judging by the initial Twitter reactions after their Alicia Keys mash-up group performance, everyone seemed to be a loving a bit of the 'five-piece' Little Mix, though we imagine Tulisa wouldn't want her big solo statement to become too tied up with the band's own launch proper later in the year.

Finally, we rather enjoyed reading that Tulisa's dream duet would be with Sting - it's not too far of a long-shot either, with the Police frontman teaming up with Nicole Scherzinger for emo ballad Power's Out. Other potential collaborators for Tulisa's solo album include Labrinth, who revealed:

"It's to be confirmed. It might happen. We did have talks about walking on her record, and I would love to work with her so it might just happen anyway."

Talay Riley - Make You Mine

We got sent Talay Riley's album sampler yonks ago, and we must confess, we were kinda wondering what had happened to him, because pretty much every track on there was brilliant - the kind of snazzy urban pop that should be right up there at the top of the charts.

Riley's credentials are impressive - he featured on the big Chipmunk hit Look For Me as well as touring with N-Dubz. Sounding like a new, rejuventated Taio Cruz or Tinchy Stryder, his specialty is robotic beats and gloriously dirty synth basslines. Previous singles Humanoid and Sergeant Smash were the epitome of this sound, seeing releases towards the end of 2010/start of 2011.

It is Riley's new single Make You Mine, however, that sees him at his best. More mainstream and clean-sounding, if any track is to see him propelled to the top of the charts, it'll be this one.

A strong, piano-driven track, it presents Riley as a kind of British Drake, which makes him Rather Good indeed. The chorus is a towering, wondrously catchy thing - one of those magical moments that sounds like you've known it all your life.

Make You Mine is released on the 1st August and can be pre-ordered from iTunes here.

Introducing... Encore

Now here's a boyband with a different angle on things. For starters, they work dubstep into their sound and feature a rapper. Signed to Island Records, and fresh from supporting Jessie J on tour, new band Encore consist of Mark, Cairo and Pierre. Boosting the impressive credentials of writing for artists such as Tinie Tempah and Talay Riley, they are also set to head out on tour with N-Dubz.

As you might imagine then, they present a fresh urban sound that, most importantly, comes across as genuine. The pop/dubstep mix, as displayed in debut single The One, works surprisingly well - perhaps a sign of how both sounds have progressed in recent years. It's a meeting of worlds and Encore seem to be the perfect act to front this kind of thing; delivering it in a credible, stylish fashion. Tracks like this present real crossover value too, feeling as if they could slot into the playlists of both Radio 1 and 1Xtra just as easily as each-other.

Follow Encore on Twitter at @wantmoreencore and visit their website http://www.wantmoreencore.com/ to download free track Chase The Light.

Talay Riley Feat. Scorcher - Good As Gold

When a song contains references to both Nando's and Windows Vista in the lyrics, I know I'm going to love it. And that's what you get with Talay Riley's new single Good As Gold. I was completely won over by Talay's sound when I got a sampler of his material last year and let's not forget he's already got a Number One under his belt with Chipmunk's Oopsy Daisy, which he wrote.

Good As Gold represents a far bigger, more radio friendly sound than his earlier material and also takes on a more American influence. The raps remain distinctly British though, with some strong vibes of Tinchy Stryder and Jay Sean's material coming through.

Songs like this were made for the summer, and with this past week being especially glorious, it can't be long till this song is blaring out of car radio's up and down the country.

I urge you to check out some of his aforementioned earlier material too - Make You Mine, Humanoid and Sergeant Smash, as a trio of tracks, are some of the strongest material I've heard from an up and coming artist in a long time.


Good As Gold is released on the 30th May.


Talay Riley - Good As Gold Ft. Scorcher by PurplePR