Mayday stick to their established style for 'Future Vintage'
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By Alex Dionisio
Miami-formed hip-hop band Mayday (rappers Bernz and Wreckonize, keyboardist/producer Plex Luthor, drummer LT Hopkins, Bassist Gianni Cash and percussionist NonMS) began their rise modestly in their suburban Kendall, FL locale but had big dreams, big ideas and big musical flavors to share with the world. Signed to SouthBeat Records initially and buoyed by a few hits like 2004's "Quicksand" and 2006's YouTube smash "Groundhog Day" featuring Cee-Lo, Mayday would later run into rough patches when SouthBeat hit hard times financially, but when Tech N9ne came to the group's rescue soon after, the Mayday boys quickly signed with his Strange Music outfit in 2011. In 2012, they released their Strange debut album, the solid Take Me To Your Leader, with Believers arriving a year later and Mursday with LA's Living Legend MURS coming in 2014, both to similar praise. With the wind at their backs, the clan are back to build upon all those previous projects with their latest, the Future Vintage LP (released Sept. 18).
Queueing up Mayday's iconic sound from before, chill easy-rock beats with organic instruments and Miami music essences are layered and tempered to spread exciting yet cool vibes in their listeners' souls. To be clear, this is not Roots-like music, as the new-wave, electronic notes in their chords detach more than attached them to traditional jazz, at least on this album of theirs. Future Vintage is a little less giddy and more philosophically melancholy than any previous Mayday release, but still, the guys are predominantly on their own wavelength here, relatable as they may be in parts. Though songs like "Coast," "DIVE" and "Something in the Air" provide a light, hangout-like experience, most of the album is spent pondering life. With a bohemian air and a tortured soul mind-state, Mayday deal with love, rebellion, death, everyday life struggles, police malfeasance, chasing dreams and maintaining family bonds as just some of their speaking points, as they go off course from time to time as they wish. The group is still cool, but the sense of longing looming over their shoulders here has them a little hot and bothered for the right and wrong reasons.
Mayday is still mostly grounded, but parts of Future Vintage feel like a pity party, and ironically, the only happiness they find is in healthy relationships (a definite plus) and low-key partying (could be counterproductive). The slow-burning depression is obvious but more so as a concept than a dreadfully serious phase in the true lives of the members, and it does have the backing of all of Mayday plus their guests (Stevie Stone, Femi Kuti, Ryan "Myagi" Evans, Ces Cru, Stige and Tech N9ne). Strange Music artists tend to sound the same, but Mayday on this album are just as much unique and original as they are a well-fitting, belonging part of the unified Strange brand of sound and style. Future Vintage will very likely do for Mayday just what its title denotes, which is to live on in the future for a long time to come, and be a reference point in their discography as a signature period in their career.