Browsing Tag

Alt RnB

‘Backseat’ Finds SHALINI RANI in Full Femme Fatale Force and Soul-Pop Control

Posted on 11 April 2026

Some of the lushest RnB of the decade landed when SHALINI RANI dropped Backseat. The Watford-based British-Indian soul-pop artist has built her voice and vision on her own terms, pulling from jazz, soul and pop while rooting everything in fearless self-expression, cultural truth and the search for belonging. Backseat catches all of that in motion. Blazing with the same unfuckwithable fire and energy as Lola Young, with raspy in all the right places RnB harmonies, SHALINI RANI knows how to bring the hypnotism to her juxtapositions of soul and salaciously spicy femme fatale ferocity.

As a metaphorical refusal to live small and operate from a secondary position, Backseat stirs vindication deep within without any of the emotion feeling forced. SHALINI RANI tempers it all with luxe grooves that grip your rhythmic impulses in a way that leaves you wondering whether they’ll ever let go. There’s sensuality in the movement, steel in the intent, and a self-possessed centre that gives the single its real charge.

That sense of reclamation runs through her wider creative life too, from self-teaching her musical language to advocating for queer and female artists through Haven Studios, while also contributing to The Ivors Academy’s early careers and jazz-focused spaces. Backseat feels like liberation in motion.

Backseat is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Desire as Diagnosis in NVIY’s masterstroke of alt-RnB quiessence, ‘INFECTED’

Posted on 27 March 2026
NVIY

NVIY is set to start a new endemic of desire with her hypnotically cathartic alt-RnB single, INFECTED. Within the release, the quiescence of dream pop tempers the motifs of 8Bit-adjacent soundscapes while never compromising on the escapism of the meandering melodies, which reach the pinnacle of immersivity as the singer-songwriter experiments with the signatures of 90s electronic trip-hop and leftfield electronica, finding moments to send shockwaves of reverberant turbulence through the artfully arcane release.

Built on deep bass and synth textures, the track moves with a slow, deliberate weight, mirroring the feverish atmosphere that inspired its creation. Written while physically ill, the concept of infection becomes metaphor, desire as something that settles into your system and refuses to leave, something you almost welcome despite knowing the consequences. The chorus deepens rather than releases, the vocals becoming fuller and more enveloping, reinforcing the sense of emotional and physical immersion that runs through the track.

Based in Los Angeles and fully self-directed in her creative process, writing, producing, mixing and shaping her own visual world, NVIY approaches her music with a level of control that keeps everything firmly within her aesthetic universe. Previously featured by several major blogs and magazines, she continues to refine her dark, slow-burning alt-RnB sound with INFECTED, a release that feels immersive, feverish and emotionally consuming in equal measure.

INFECTED is now available on all major streaming platforms via this link. 
Review by Amelia Vandergast

Contemporary RnB Artist, Rochone Salaciously Dripped Disco-Glitter Grooves and Aphrodisiacal Harmonies into ‘I Love Sex’

Posted on 10 March 2026

Lust reigns over romance in Rochone’s LP, Love Fails. Guilt-free pleasure takes precedence in the standout single, I Love Sex, where Rochone keeps his cards close to his chest while slipping into the airwaves’ sheets with a luxe contemporary RnB groove. The track bridges the gap between the imprint The Weeknd has left on the genre and the scintillating soul of funk-chopped disco euphoria, delivering a rhythm that feels equally primed for dim-lit dance floors and late-night headphone confessionals.

Through Nile Rodgers-esque staccato guitar chops, synths that deliver disco ball glitter synaesthesia and harmonies aphrodisiacal enough to get listeners on the same salacious page as Rochone, the single moves with a knowing swagger. The groove glides along with silky confidence, while the vocal performance keeps a sly sense of control, teasing out the track’s sensuality without giving away the whole hand. Within that polished RnB-pop framework, the hook lands with sticky-sweet immediacy. .

Rochone’s arrival as a solo artist carries the experience of a seasoned performer. Raised in Los Angeles and steeped in live entertainment, he spent his early years performing with the boy band Radio For People, taking to major stages including televised talent shows that demanded charisma as much as vocal power. That background in dance and performance still bleeds through the production choices here, giving the groove a kinetic charge that feels built for movement as much as listening.

I Love Sex is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Rich Delinquent – Heartbreak Afterparty: An Ethereal Shimmer of RnB Emotion and Melancholic Dopamine Spiral

Posted on 13 February 2026
Rich Delinquent

Rich Delinquent dialled into his most luxuriant RnB release to date on Heartbreak Afterparty, teaming up with Tyla Yahweh to pour an ethereal shimmer of sonic emotion into a track shaped for late-night unravelment.

The Melbourne-based rising artist has been blazing through the ranks since his debut, but with Heartbreak Afterparty, he sealed his fate as one of the most promising RnB revolutionists operating in the shadows of the mainstream. The way he takes trending aesthetics and transforms them into haunting spectres of emotion that linger within his hyper distorted harmonies and within the oscillations of melancholic reverb proves that he is not here to play it safe. He is here to cut through the monotony with sincerity and a sense of style that could never be anything but authentic.

The track’s lyrically messy core orbits the dopamine chasing that follows a breakup, the way we toy with pleasure and pain to numb the persistent ache of disconnection. Heartbreak Afterparty hits like the aftermath of a night spent trying to outrun the truth, coating each line in a kind of foggy intoxication that feels painfully familiar. Rich Delinquent’s instinct for melodic tension gives the song its addictive pull, while Tyla Yahweh’s presence adds a slick sheen that wraps around the emotional volatility rather than smoothing it over.

Rich Delinquent refuses to polish the rough edges of heartbreak, instead choosing to sit inside the emotional spillage and let the reverb-soaked production echo the inner discord. His rise has been fast for a reason. Heartbreak Afterparty shows he is more than a trend watcher, he is a world shaper with an ear for emotional truth and an eye on RnB’s future contours.

Heartbreak Afterparty is now available on all major streaming platforms. Find your preferred way to listen on the artist’s official website. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Kinju – Double Life: An Alt-RnB Unravelling of Duality, Desire and Diaphanous Introspection

Posted on 8 February 2026

In Kinju’s latest release, Double Life, he explored the contours of duality with a pensively powerful alt-RnB touch. Through crystalline falsetto harmonies, beats that bleed reverberance, and modernised nods to boom bap nostalgia, the independent RnB experimentalist and evocateur lets his vulnerability take full shape. He wears his heart on his synth lines, allowing the fragility in his delivery to colour the entire atmosphere. The woozy textures, the slow-burning ache in the production and the suspended air around his vocal phrasing turn the track into a confession cushioned in hazy melodic light.

As the narrative unfolds, Kinju charts more and more unexplored aural territory, paying a fitting ode to the authenticity of his voice and lived experience, which often jars against itself. He channels the moments when the bitter trails the sweet, when regret sidles up to the act of following your heart and when desire mutates from self-fulfilment into the self-sacrificing wish to see someone thrive even if it nudges you out of the frame. The emotional turbulence sits against the softness of the arrangement, heightening the shadowed sting that sweeps through the track.

The diaphanous quality of the track eclipses much of contemporary RnB’, leaving a lingering shimmer that almost refuses to settle. Double Life feels like a shifting light source, revealing new angles of pensive despair, devotion and introspective reckoning every time it loops back around.

Double Life is now available on all major streaming platforms via this link. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

K Penny and Ethan Moon gave RnB nocturnal gravity in the soul-honed single ‘U Turn’

Posted on 16 January 2026

K PENNY turned the ignition on her debut album, A Late Night Penny Drive,  pulled listeners into her reverie-rich world, and left them with far more than fumes in the rear-view. Among the brightest beams from the hazy headlights is U Turn, a luxuriously tender collaboration with ETHAN MOON. It’s the kind of track that anchors you in the passenger seat of someone else’s longing, then quietly shifts the gears of your own emotional terrain.

80s nostalgia shimmers in the atmospheric drum pads and the haze of reverb that rises from the instrumentation around K Penny’s hypnotically dreamy harmonies. The way her vocal lines melt into each other feels like a serenade to every sleepless night spent missing someone who tugged the stars out of alignment. There’s a deep-set yearning folded into the soft-toned afro-RnB rhythms, but there’s nothing downbeat about it. The slow swells and playful licks of romanticism were made to move you.

K Penny’s sound is intimate without feeling insular; cinematic without losing that lived-in quality that gives late-night RnB its raw warmth. Her instinct for coaxing vulnerability from atmospheric textures lands with clarity across A Late Night Penny Drive, but U Turn is where everything collides — the longing, the connection, the melodic glow of emotional fluency. It’s not a ballad begging to be framed; it’s a slow dance between what’s felt and what’s found.

U Turn is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Koliha treated rhythm like a living force on her dream-drenched alt-RnB single, The Love I Give

Posted on 24 December 2025

KOLIHA delivered pure syncopated seduction in The Love I Give, a track that draws from the sonic bloodlines of Björk, PJ Harvey, Massive Attack, and Portishead, while keeping one foot firmly in the sensual slow-burn of 90s RnB. Where other artists chase hooks, Koliha treats rhythm like a breathing entity, letting it unfurl in its own time while her smooth siren harmonies move through the atmosphere like smoke curling off something freshly scorched.

There’s cinematography embedded into every moment. Dreamy shoegaze guitars dissolve into dusky samples and hazy neo-soul textures, making it impossible to tell where memory ends and desire begins. The Love I Give isn’t designed for passive listening — it pulls you into its all-encompassing softness. It’s as mood-heavy as it is teasingly intimate as Koliha’s voice speaks like it’s already lived through your worst heartbreak and your sweetest mistake.

An independent multidisciplinary artist who builds her sonic and visual worlds from scratch, KOLIHA approaches sound design with a painter’s eye and a poet’s ear. Her tracks come textured with live instrumentation she plays herself, underscored by the intimacy of bedroom production but lifted with a cinematic poise that makes each piece feel like a short film.

The Love I Give is now available on all major streaming platforms,  including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Camaro Hayes built an altar of old-school RnB soul in ‘Heal Your Heart’

Posted on 10 December 2025

Camaro Hayes brought back the tender resolve of the old-school RnB ballad in Heal Your Heart, a piano-laced confessional soaked in warmth and slow-burning emotional clarity. Rather than weaving sentiment into saccharine clichés, Camaro traces the bruised edges of intimacy with reverence for the kind of love that takes work to believe in again. The track reaches out gently, asking whether it’s still possible to soften without breaking apart.

Under the raw, melodic vocal delivery lies a quietly euphoric shimmer of organ tones, swelling just enough to give the track a gospel-tinged glow. That subtle radiance never tips into performance for the sake of theatrics; Camaro stays rooted in honesty. He isn’t writing from a pulpit, he’s writing from the cracked floorboards where trust has splintered but hope still flickers. It’s that balance between soulful strength and lyrical vulnerability that defines Heal Your Heart, turning it into more than just a soundtrack for slow-dancing in empty kitchens. It becomes an act of healing in itself.

From track to track, Camaro Hayes continues to resist the sheen and polish of throwaway streaming fodder. Instead, he leans into slow, cathartic storytelling, bringing the intimacy of Neo-Soul into the RnB revival with passion and panache. His sound may echo with the ghosts of classic soul, but it’s his own lived experiences, reflections, and emotional honesty that give it that tender resolution and resonance.

Heal Your Heart is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify and Tidal.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

‘Tapedeck’ by Nabuma threaded synergy, soul and intuitive riffs into weightless RnB transcendence

Posted on 20 November 2025

Cyprus-based neo soul outfit Nabuma let more than a little love into Tapedeck, the title single from their debut EP, written for listeners who want RnB with groove, feeling and that slow build that keeps you properly locked in. The track achieves gravity-defying weightless transcendence through pure accordance, chemistry through synergy and warmth through swathes of soul capable of warming up the coldest corridors of your world.

The official music video gives you a fly on the wall view as you watch every element become more than the sum of its parts, which only leaves you even more enamoured with the artists; if you cut them open, rhythm would move within them like lifeblood.

The way they cut away from the easy listening grooves to build into one of the most intuitive riffs of the year for the middle-eight gives you all the proof you need that Nabuma are in the here and now, delivering for audiences who crave the time when it felt easy to be broadsided and subsequently spellbound by sound.

Formed in 2018, the Cyprus-based quartet, vocalist Nicole Ardanitou, bassist Andreas Matheou, guitarist Alexis Kasinos and drummer Kris Grecian, have been shaping a reputation across their local scene with sets that move between introspection and release. The Tapedeck EP, which landed in April 2024, laid out their taste for textured arrangements and emotionally honest lyricism without letting go of accessibility. With a new record already in the works and their name slowly travelling further into Europe, Tapedeck feels like the moment listeners outside Cyprus finally get to tune into the room Nabuma have been building.

Tapedeck is now available on all major streaming platforms. For the full experience, stream the official music video on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Nick Shaquan poured aphrodisiacal RnB fire into the Deluxe version of ‘Relax’

Posted on 9 November 2025

Nick Shaquan turned up the heat with the Deluxe version of Relax, a track that exudes more late-night condensation than a neon-lit motel room. Instead of leaning on easy rhythm or predictable RnB tropes, the Charleston-based artist seduces through restraint, letting the bass hit slow and heavy while his vocals drip like honey. The sound design throbs with lust, fusing the rough with the refined, where reverberant edges meet satin-smooth harmonies.

Shaquan drips desire into every lyric, coaxing the listener to give in, to feel the pull of surrender dressed in melody. The Deluxe treatment only deepens that indulgence, pushing the track into even more luxurious territory. The rhythm feels almost dangerous in how it commands the body, while his voice unravels that tension with quiet dominance. This is RnB stripped down to its rawest essence, each phrase crafted to hypnotise, to invite the kind of slow-burning connection that borders on sin.

Raised in Columbia, South Carolina, Shaquan grew up soaking in the power of soul and story. His background in cinematic songwriting breathes through Relax (Deluxe), where narrative and pleasure entwine until they’re inseparable. After his reflective project Sincerely Nobody, this single moves with pure instinct, a masterclass in seduction without the gloss of imitation. It’s music made to make you feel seen, wanted, and undone.

Relax (Deluxe) is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast