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The artist who goes by the moniker PVibez can best be described as a music geek. He performs live, but would much rather spend his time in the studio where he mixes his alchemy and comes up with projects such as Urban Xpressionz, his latest. Ask him what musical styles count as influences and he’ll name funk, jazz, soul, neo soul, hip-hop, blues, gospel, rock, reggae, Afro-Latin and classical, just to name a few. In short, PVibez is pretty much influenced by – everything. He views himself more as a producer, songwriter and composer rather than a performer.
The artist who goes by the moniker PVibez can best be described as a music geek. He performs live, but would much rather spend his time in the studio where he mixes his alchemy and comes up with projects such as Urban Xpressionz, his latest. Ask him what musical styles count as influences and he’ll name funk, jazz, soul, neo soul, hip-hop, blues, gospel, rock, reggae, Afro-Latin and classical, just to name a few. In short, PVibez is pretty much influenced by – everything. He views himself more as a producer, songwriter and composer rather than a performer.
Listeners can hear PVibes’ experimental side come out on several tracks on Urban Xpressionz, but stylistically, he pretty much sticks to the soul, neo-soul and funk that appear to be his real interests (with a little hip-hop thrown in). Urban Xpressionz features six full-length tunes with two short interludes that open and close the record, so this project is more akin to EP length. That doesn’t give PVibez much time to showcase his lyricist, composer and producing skills, and he front-loads Urban Xpressionz with the strongest content. “Cyberspace” is a neo-soul number that tells the story of his love interest’s infatuation with the Internet. “No Fantasy” is a dreamy yet funky bass driven ballad that features a duet with female vocalist Dee Freer, while “Send Me a Letter” is a soul meets jazz number that features some lovely trumpet work by Vicky Flint. The quality drops somewhat after that. Cuts such as “Pretty Buddafly” are pleasant enough, none of them have those ear worm moments such as Flint’s horn playing or witty word play and vulnerable falsetto singing that lifts “Send Me a Letter” and “Cyberspace. Still, Urban Xpressionz has more than enough good moments to serve as a solid calling card for PVibez
Notable Tracks: Cyberspace, Funkomatic, No Fantasy, Send Me a Letter
Lyrics: 3.0
Vocals: 3.0
Instrumentation: 3.0
Production: 3.0
Soultracks call: Recommended
By Howard Dukes