5 hours ago
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On “Jordans”, there’s one thing that really matters: the vocals. Skirting around the more maximalist production of their peers, 19-year-old best friends Dara Awosala and Ruby Harrison-Sears have put together an R&B single that shows exactly what their voices can do. On it, both of them sing over a sparse, thudding beat and synthy chords with vocals that are intermittently growly, floaty, tough, rhythmic, or fluid. They trade verses with all the ease and dynamism of a rap duo.
In fact, when I ask Two Tone where they see themselves in the R&B scene they’ve just burst onto, they offer up the same analogy: “it’s as if we were two rappers, but we’re singing our verses… that’s how I envision it,” Awosala tells me. With an already strong following in their native West London, and having honed their talent at the BRIT school, an institution now synonymous with prodigious talent, they seem confident in what comes next. Drawing heavily from the area’s vibrant cultural scene, “We’re making [our music] a bit more gritty, a bit more London,” says Harrison-Sears.
Certainly, there’s plenty of grit on “Jordans”, their debut single co-written and produced by Little Mix collaborator Frank Nobel. It starts off with a scathing, hell hath no fury verse, and a dexterous, lyric-dense pre-chorus that clearly showcases Two Tone’s skill with words (“betterin’” and “veteran” is a particularly delicious rhyme), before launching into a chorus that socks the listener in the stomach. Through warped vocals and the same, intense drum beat that loops through all three minutes, they command their ill-fated ex to “come get your stuff from my yard!”
“I was listening to Kelis's “Caught Out There”, and I was like, ‘I kind of like this vibe, I kind of want to do something similar,’ says Harrison-Sears. “We got into the studio and did it and straight away we were like, ‘yeah, this is a banger, this needs to be the chorus.’”
Two Tone have already earned comparisons with artists like Brandy and FLO, who they name as influences. But the musicality of their vocals doesn’t obscure the pure anger that propels “Jordans”, cutting through smooth production to reveal something rawer underneath. It’s an unapologetic introduction to a duo who are just getting started.
English (US) · 