Montreal hip hop ensemble NOMADIC MASSIVE, is releasing today the brand-new MIWA EP, just in time to help us get through this freezing November. This also serves as a good appetizer before the release of their upcoming full length album scheduled in 2019. That year will also mark the band’s 15th anniversary.

The Afro-Latin accented Lo Que Soy launches off the EP with a bang. Conceptualized around an Afro-Cuban sample, this track is filled with sharp flows as well as introspective and spiritual lyrics, It explores new rhythmic sounds, closer to trap music, as the band experimented with 808s.

Miwa, the title track, has spearheaded the project. It’s also the most recent single to have been released. It discloses an energetic brass line. The musicality was built around a beat created by Lou Piensa. As for the lyrics, they all start from the same anchor “Inside the matrix, yet outside its reach / Outside the pattern, yet inside its breach”. The song offers a catchy call-and-answer chorus in Creole, that’s at once unifying and unforgettable.

Tie dem laces introduces an old beat revisited by Waahli that’s neatly influenced by the soul spirit of the Motown era, to which Tali layed a Caribbean-flavored refrain. The beat, based on a hypnotizing loop, accompanies verses that deal with the concept of honesty.

The song Move In Silence was produced by French beatmaker GUTS and was released earlier last year. The latter had approached the group in order to add a Montreal touch to one of his existing tracks that also included the harmonies of European musicians Féfé and Patrice. The band has kept the chorus, adding their groove to the verses. The song speaks of humility and its resulting strength.

The Miwa EP concludes with Let It in, a heavily jazz and R&B influenced track produced by Butta Beats. Meryem was quickly inspired by his beats to write the verses. A rare treat, guitarist Ali Sepu also layed down a Spanish verse. And for the first time on tape, we can hear the lovely voice of Naim, 5 years old, and the son of vocalist Tali.

Credits

The Miwa EP was recorded at the Third Star Studio in Montreal, in 2018. NOMADIC MASSIVE produced all tracks except Move in Silence: Lou Piensa (Lo que soy, Miwa), Waahli (Tie Dem Laces) and Butta Beats (Let It in). The mix is ​​signed by Montreal producer Rila Beats (formerly of Heavy Sounds) and the cover art is signed by Montreal illustrator Kristian Bolanos.