Bamao Yendé’s second mixtape of this series explores R&B narratives of the 2000s, primarily matters of the heart. Across 40 minutes and fourteen tracks, stacked with features including Crystal Murray and mobilegirl, it’s a hazy yet intentional release. The sound matches the soft lines of the spray-paint pastel release artwork.
The album fizzes gently with icy production that mostly soothes in this Europe-wide heatwave. Bamao Yendé has the French know-how for sonics, born in Cergy, north of Paris, and he’s solidified himself as part of the Parisian party scene since 2014.
Midi Minuit ft. Lala &ce and MC ZKW, the lead track, features a groove that’s danceable, scattered with breathy moans. Lo-fi enunciations take a lead character role. Lala &ce’s featured lyrics trace pursuit, dreaming of a lover rather than the grind and the early stage of romantic success. His rap is laid back, strings melting in effortlessly. MC ZKW of São Paulo sees his lines briefly turn up the tempo, Yendé’s glittering production threading the features together. Between what sounds like bells and magic there’s consistent counterbalance to the bass and masculine rap vocals in this song.
Alongside experimental, spacious electronic tracks, the Midi Minuit song condenses the amorous mood of the mixtape. Lusty, stretched-out strings and drum beats reach towards cinematic landscapes, sometimes melodies are spaced-out, high, other times embodied. The mixtape evades definitive narratives, instead Yendé shares whispered fragments of encounters, each with their own unique beat. The scratchy experimental textures on Blind on that sh*t fulfil a different type of itch to the lead track. Elsewhere, high, siren-like flourishes meet strings and that forever driving drum rhythm. These compositions display a sort of dualism.
If Midi Minuit is a romance, Apothicaire Corazon is the twenty-four-hour off-license at dawn: a little rougher, a little stranger, and even more revealing. Out now on Yendé’s own Boukan Records.