Montell Fish mines progressive ambient Soul music, a soothing balm spread generously like a comforting blanket, dissonant tones sparingly appear as counterbalance.
There is little to find on the background of Montell Frazier. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to a devout Christian mother and secular father.
They separated when he was six months. Mothers place was Gospel music, church on Sunday and strict moral boundaries. Fathers was looser with those restrictions. The sacred and the profane.
There were encounters with drugs, depression, and relationship issues. Everything which goes into teenage life growing up in a privileged First World country.
It is no surprise that the church still plays a big part in the lives of youth, particularly in America. Where the currency may appear to be material wealth and spirituality is bankrupt, after the extremely turbulent moral crises of two world wars last century.
The deepest origins of music are religious and spiritual, the ecstatic state if you will.
It was in that time of personal moral crisis that Fish started to develop his Christian Rap, and the pathway to his current formidable success. Clearly including social media, YouTube, and other platforms.
The commercial dead zone of a Monday night, and the Powerstation is sold out.
You were old if you were more than thirty-five. It was a warm and slightly beatific atmosphere. When asked, people described the music as Alternative. I had to prompt them to consider it Soul, or Gospel.
Rap is nowhere in sight tonight.
The show starts with Fish, wearing a hoodie, and a bass guitarist accompanying him.
Opening song Break from Her Spell immediately has his signature falsetto, above his natural tenor. A pure piercing tone which tends to float detached in the stratosphere. Accentuated by his harsh guitar textures.
Pretend Lovers is heralded by deep bass beats and sounds like Prince with it’s hard R’n’B rhythm. Girl, do you really wanna be my friend? The call goes out to dance the shit out of this.
Rockin’ My World was originally released under his DJ Gummy Bear persona. Nice Rock guitar riffing opens a song which becomes heavy on the synth Soul, subsonic bass notes underpinning. Smooth falsetto vocal wings make it fly.
At some stage he has taken to heart George McCrae’s early disco classic Rock Your Baby (written by Harry Casey and Richard Finch), from 1974 and made a career out of it. The genesis of the pre-recorded backing music is here too. Lots of space and avoiding instrumental clutter.
Fish has commented in interviews that he wants to make Soul and Gospel outside of their traditional and familiar spheres.
Sam Cooke could do those mile-high falsetto leaps, but he didn’t sustain them. This was on his Gospel sides with the brilliant Soul Stirrers. Whilst he brought the church to secular music when he switched, he never pursued the falsetto again.
A good example of the sacred and profane. Shot and killed in a motel, by a black female manager, who was trying to stop him attacking a prostitute he had picked up.
And I’d go a Thousand Miles Away. Some songs have dissonant grunge guitar to liven things up, always surrounded by recorded synthesiser backgrounds.
Others have twangy note-bending. Nothing is overplayed and there is no extemporising or expanding on the vamp.
Eighteen songs come in at under 75 minutes. There is no support act.
Bathroom captures my attention. Stark, and with those heavy drum and bass drops. There is a little of the rhythmic structure of Rufus & Chaka Khan’s Tell Me Something Good. The crystal Tubular Bells also appear.
His simple, percussive churchy piano accompanies a few songs, like Irrational.
Montell Fish is softly spoken and genuinely humble when he speaks. His debut show in New Zealand is sold out. He has a similar manner to Michael Jackson here in appearing shy and reclusive. He does not carry a big posse around with him and has a select few as his regular confidantes.
Since I have already mentioned Prince, then I can also make a comparison to Stevie Wonder. Especially the Seventies onward where he was embracing electronica. There is the voice too. We are looking back to 1962 and the pre-puberty Little Stevie Wonder of Fingertips Part One and Two.
The slow soul burners like Jamie and Talk 2 Me are audience favourites.
He previews a new song coming out with his Charlotte album in less than two weeks. You’re the drug in my vein that keeps me from going insane. Music wells up with orchestral touches.
The celestial sounds of Montell Fish are unashamedly positive and uplifting. Like Cooke before him, Gospel and Soul can be mixed to be a New Breed Thing again.
Rev. Orange Peel
Photography by Chloe Tredgett
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