Don't Skim on "Spiritualized" and Aloe Vera
I did not immediately spot the unique value in Real J. Wallace and Dayfade's album "Aloe Ver,a," despite the cloud parting, tear-tasting introduction. Upon writing a private critic to Real J, I learned about the recording process behind this album, heard unreleased music and watched his mini documentary, "Spiritualized." It was then that the significance of “Aloe Vera” was revealed to me.
These 13 songs are Real J’s slowing laps around the comfortable “loop.” The project is nothing new for his listeners as far as quality lyricism and self-sung hooks, both on and off key. Dayfade’s production on this album is reminiscent of the smooth sounds of French producer Dela. (It’s a nice addition to the catalog, and must listen to songs on “Aloe Vera” include a tranquil and fluty song called “Moon,” and “Go,” which there is a video for, posted below.)
He understands that creativity is limited by the typical-16 bar, free-chanting chorus, and repeatedly looped-sample structure.
One of the most potent topics on “Aloe Vera” lies in track 11, “A Thousand Knives.” Real J. says: “thought you were fly until you looked me in the eyes and lied a thousand times. Damn I thought that you was mine, until I found you with another guy. It’s like you stabbed me in the back with a thousand knives. That day I learned so much it’s like I lived a thousand lives. I never felt so low, it’s like I lost a thousand highs. ”
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In fact the majority of the album, including "A Thousand Knives," was recorded in 2012 and 2013 at Platt College while he was working with the student body and Break Bread TV. “The students recorded most of the tracks, and most of them where lost,” says Real J. So Aloe Vera is the final round-up and release of lingering material, making way for new artistic advancements. Named after aloe vera, a crucial plant with super-healing powers from burns to aging and cancer, the album represents “healing from the inside,” to Real J. However with “Aloe Vera” I get the vibe that his creativity is boxed in; he has visions of artistry that these song structures and images cannot translate. So part of the healing may be taking care of unfinished business, cleansing out the old, which makes room for the new. And the new is announced to us in his mini-documentary, "Spiritualized," filmed and edited by Benjamin Huerta, featuring unreleased music from an album called "American Boy," produced by DNYKAY, scheduled to release in 2018. It is his newer music, unreleased and previously unheard by the public, that raises the stock on this album. It delivers a contrasting variety of energies. For example, the opening song of the mini doc called "Monsters," is fun and childlike, stepping away from the perimeters of looped beats and one-vocal track recordings. Its concluding song, "Hopeful," brings together the contrast of tranquility, offense, and fun. We are seeing his different traits come together in harmony. "Spiritualized" is goofy, vulnerable and liberating to embrace when "image," and "effortless cool" are pushed upon us so hard. But the visuals, soundtrack, and gifts of the most imperative and basic revelations of self actualization nail seriousness to the floor. Real J. says, ""the realization that you are god; the fact that you have the power to create the future with your thoughts, something that is intangible. Use these powers. It's a flabbergasting miracle." "Aloe Vera" and "Spiritualized" together are the before and after pictures of current progress.
