Cody ChestnuTT
Album: Landing On A Hundred
Label: One Little Indian
Tracks: 12
Website: https://www.facebook.com/iamcodychesnutt

Clearly not one to be rushed in these things, by the time ChestnuTT had recorded The Headphone Masterpiece, his sprawling 36-track debut album on a four-track cassette machine in his bedroom in 2002, he had already almost tasted fame as a house writer for notorious rap label Death Row and flirted with the mainstream in The Crosswalk. His song, The Seed, was retooled by hip hop royalty The Roots and he found himself nominated for The Shortlist Prize in 2003, but other than a track for 4AD's low-key compilation Plague Songs (alongside Scott Walker, Brian Eno, Robert Wyatt, Rufus Wainwright etc) the year after and a showing in David Chappelle's Block Party (directed by Michel Gondry) in 2006. not much has been heard of him since.

So, why are you reading about Cody ChestnuTT at Fatea…? The soul reason - if not the sole reason - is that Landing on a Hundred is the first new musical evidence in a long while that the songwriting spirits of Marvin, Curtis, Nina et al are stirring again. In his mid-40s, ChestnuTT almost belongs to their generation and the uptown styling and sophisticated delivery evidenced here are a long way from the frequently unfocused diversions of his debut. Love Is More Than a Wedding Day and the opening cut 'Til I Met Thee capture the timbre and pleading urgency of Marvin Gaye on the widely under-rated Here, My Dear - strings swirl as ChestnuTT's voice swoops and soars through crafted arrangements that emphasise rather than curtail the soulful content.

Those who like their soul music deep and sparse should seek out Don't Follow Me with its intense, humid musical setting the ideal backing to a powerful, impassioned performance that's an object lesson in restraint to the young pretenders that mistake screeching for soul searching.

If only the album could sustain that intensity throughout - something it could have achieved simply by omitting the reggae-splashed I've Been Life and the coffee-cream pop of What Kind of Cool - we'd be considering the bestowal of instant classic status.

Never mind, Under the Spell of the Handout and Where Is All the Money Going? are more extravagant in performance and expansive in delivery echo and the funky protest soul of the 70s, while Don't Wanna Go the Other Way assimilates more contemporary sounds of black America.

Nick Churchill
www.thegranvillechambers.co.uk