“Just search for balance in life”
Stay-at-home orders excuse us to do things we would otherwise do in selfish embarrassment in a free-range world. Clearing out my queues on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime has been a time-intensive task long overdue, and perfectly paired with our current lockdown.
One of the shows I should’ve latched onto more timely is High Fidelity, the series with Zoe Kravitz, rebooted from the 2000 movie of the same name with John Cusack. Excellent show, highly recommended, with the added bonus of hearing some great tracks (Questlove is the executive music supervisor). Episode 8 ends with our Track of the Week, the soulfully hummed and knee-slapping “In Search of Balance” performed by the regally named Reginald Omas Mamode IV. Dude’s name is as unique as his sound, a rich blend of jazz, soul, afrobeat, and funk. “In Search of Balance” is stripped down, a mix between a soulful chain gang in Georgia and a tambourine-armed subway performer in NYC. The type of sound that is instantly intriguing. I had to rush to disable auto play on Hulu so the credits could play out the rest of the song.
“Celebrate your talents in life / Incite that strength from inside”
There’s not much published about Mr. Mamode, this track comes from his album, Where We Going?, released last year. The theme of this playlist is essentially Where We Going?, so this track blends right into our continual quest to find that balance in life. Songs shouldn’t be allowed to be this basic and this good, lyrically and musically. Questlove, thank you for exposing us to another gem buried in the underground.
You can learn more about Reginald Omas Mamode IV here:
About the Curator – Ben Young:
Ben Young lives a life of polarity. He has split his life between the coasts: half his life on the West (California) and half on the East (Georgia and Virginia). He has pursued careers in the art world (film school graduate) and the corporate world (executive with Fortune 500 companies). And he is Biracial, the personification of being two things at once.
Ben’s musical influences were formed by music loving parents, raised in a world of John Coltrane and John Lennon, James Taylor and James Ingram, Huey Lewis and the News and Prince and the Revolution. Saxophones, electric guitars, synthesizers, and breakbeats filled the air Ben breathed from birth. And being born one year after the birth of Hip Hop, Ben has been joined at the hip with the genre his entire life.