Canadian Pop Meets Reggae?

Idle Forest of Chit Chat

Kinny

By Hunter Embry

Thanks to her love for jazz, reggae and soul, Kinny abandoned her classical training as an opera singer and recorded Idle Forest of Chit Chat, a fiercely cultured and expressive debut R&B album.

Kinny, a native Canadian with Jamaican lineage, originally toured with the well-known Canadian reggae group Third Eye Tribe. While touring, she landed in Norway and decided to make it her home.

Kinny enlisted the help of seven different producers to help create Idle Forest. The album's title track, featuring Souldrop, combines a clean floating guitar, punchy groove beat and strikingly, quick worded melodic vocal track in which the singer describes the feeling of tired love. She repeatedly switches between talking and pain-infused vocal melodies to create a powerful pop track.

Her reggae roots shine on the bongo driven "Water For Chocolate," in which Kinny's vocal melody and word placement races through speed bumps, while high pitched, Gnarls Barkley-esque background vocals sing "Didn't I treat you right" over a digging acoustic guitar.

"Queen of Boredness" is reminiscent of Stevie Wonder's superstitious keys and funky, early-Prince guitar riffs. Kinny creeps around the grounded kick and wholesome bass lines with amusing lyrics and infectious melodies.

Idle Forest of Chit Chat is both interesting and impressive with roots-filled tracks polished with modern production techniques and a unique singer – an album that shouldn't take long to become noticed within the states.

Check it out at myspace.com/kinnytunes.