As stylish as they are sleek, the beats that guide the tempo in Satellītes’ new single and music video, “Love & Disaster,” are an embodiment of cool jazz textures and sensuous R&B swing, but they’re only one of many brilliant elements to behold in the latest cut from Jasmine Bleile’s solo project. “Love & Disaster,” like the album that it takes its name from, sports a black and white simplicity that makes it an exceptionally accessible crossover tune, and though it features a polished a production quality, it’s a decidedly edgier style of pop than what you can expect to find on the mainstream side of the dial at the moment.
Bleile’s vocal is very soulful and has a classical tone to it, but the biting lyrical delivery that she demonstrates in this song is anything but old school. She navigates the dexterous rhythm of the percussion with surgical precision, and at times lets the instrumentation get a step ahead of her in the verse to create a little extra tension as she ascends towards the chorus. This background melody is quite stirring, but there’s no debating the fact that it doesn’t have anything on the sheer tenacity of the classy crooning holding everything together here.
The music video for “Love & Disaster” is steeped in minimalism, and amidst a generation of pop music that has been rife with overindulgence, it’s a rather refreshing watch for sure. The shots are as simple as the sway of the instruments, with Bleile surreally singing to us through a grainy, yet colorful, filtration. It’s designed around a really basic concept, but for what it lacks in pomp and grandeur it more than makes up for in substance. The music is all that matters in this video, and that in itself is rather commendable when you consider pop’s excessive, and at times artistically unfocused, modern climate.
“Love & Disaster” is an excellent addition to an exciting summer for independent music in North America, and it makes me very curious to hear more from its creator in the future. Satellītes is still a relatively new endeavor for Bleile, but she hasn’t had much difficulty finding her footing in the first few releases that she’s shared with us thus far. This is an interesting listen, and I think that if it’s any indication of what we can expect to hear from this brand in the future, then the sky is the limit for this artist and her hybrid R&B sound.
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Gwen Waggoner