Nattali Rize (aka Natalie Pa‘apa’a) is already known internationally as one of the most formidable frontpeople in Australian music thanks to her work with the legendary Blue King Brown.
She’s now also channeling her talents and energy into some other solo projects, the latest being this the stunning and powerful New Era Frequency EP. Teaming up with producer Notis, the reggae production duo have given birth to a collection of seven politically charged reggae/ roots gems.
To celebrate the release of New Era Frequency Nattali Rize has given us a track by track run down of the EP which you can check out below (along with the stream) and if you like what you’re hearing visit www.nattalirize.com for more info on upcoming shows and releases.
Generations Will Rize (feat Kabaka Pyramid)
This song captures the truth we see in front of us.. we see generations rizing up for what they belive in. We live in a time where the illusion of what this system is, is becoming more and more apparent to us, we have been victims of mass mental slavery, we have been tricked into giving our power to ‘governments’ and have forgotten who we really are, our powerful potential to be the multi dimensional beings we have the ability to be.
“Generations will rize, governments they will fall” – this is how we see the future, and we use our music to help bring down oppressive systems and help in inspiring communities to take back their soveregnty and create new systems and paradigms of thought that serve them, that serve The People!
This song came together quite quickly, Unga Barunga (one half of Notis production and drum and bass duo) started writing the music and i started hummming the chorus melody right away, the lyrics came quick and strong so it was a track that we instantly had a good feeling about.
After writing the basis of the song we went into Tuff Gong Studios and got the live band to play it, this is how we worked for most of the songs we wrote together. We then came to the decision that Kabaka Pyramid was the right artist for the guest spot we had and we love what he brings to this song, he is one of the most conscious artists coming out of Jamaica right now and we are aligned in our missions with music and raising consciousness so this was a natural collaboration and really jus the beggining!
Midnight Remedy
In our little home studio in Kingston is where most of these songs were born. Midnight Remedy was another song that flowed freely and quickly. We found some nice sounds and frequencies in the music and it quickly inspired me to write a couple of verses.
I had been doing some research on the healing properties of cannabis and cannabis oil and found myself singing about this powerful plant and her ability to heal and inspire people. Unga then wrote a verse with that dj sound and we captured the modern take on an old school reggae groove, and a dub flavour. Cannabis, A healer for Humanity, A ‘Midnight Remedy’.
Rebel Love feat Zuggy Dan
Our first single and the reason we decided to embark on this unique collaborative project together. ‘Rebel Love’ was written and recorded the very first night we met. Unga Barunga was on tour in Australia playing drums for Jimmy Cliff, our friend and co creative in this project Mikki Lioness, brought him and some of the other band members to my house to just hold a vibes and connect with some local artists.
We ended up spending the whole day and night together just listening to music, eating some good food, and the studio doors opened, Unga started wrtting the riddim and before we knew it we had a full song with the rest of Jimmy’s band playing on it and myself and Zuggu on the verses. It was a fateful night and the reason we decided to further explore this connection we have.
Mountain
I woke up one morning in Kingston humming these words and melodies, like literally this song came to me as I was waking up and pulled me out of bed, I walked straight to the studio downstairs, turned on the computer and mic, and recorded the vocal foundation of this song: “Dready on the Mountain, Vision to The Sea….” and so on.
I showed it to Unga a couple of days later and we put together the rest of the feel and riddim base for the song. It was recorded with a full live band at Anchor Studios. It’s also one of the tracks we jam on for ages in our live show going deep into the dub vibes, which we love.
Heart Of A Lion
One of the tuffer songs on the EP, I love the feel of this one. Once the riddim was up and running my verse and concept came quick. To all the Lion Hearts out there, strong and proud, unity in community, we see people taking back their power.
In this concrete jungle we’ve got to have the heart of a lion.
All of the tracks except ‘Rebel Love’ were mixed by James ‘Bonzai’ Caruso, who we’ve worked with over the past five years on most of our recordings, he brings creativity into the mix sessions, knows how to make it sound vast and adds tasty flavours like the snare dubs and drops in this song.
New Reality
“I think one of the moments that made us connect on a deeper level in this project was when we wrote ‘New Reality’. We had just had our gear and hard drives stolen from our vehicle in Kingston.. it wasn’t a pretty site.
We had a lot on those hard drives, studio sessions, film footage, photos, documentation of the whole journey… What happend was it forced us to spend some time really focusing on what we wanted to achieve and create as a unique collaboration and ask ourselves how we were able to deliver this music and message as we knew it needed to be delivered. So in the midst of stolen equipment, we intuitively started to create somethng completely different sonically, a new sound, a new reality of sound to us.
The song brought something different musically out of both me and Unga and really showed us that through the hard times there is always something positive that comes of it.. and so ‘New Reality’ was born and I think it remains Unga’s favourite song from our EP.”
Dread Mountain (Dub)
For this dub version we went to our good friend and producer from New Zealand, Macro Dubplates. We have worked with him extensively in the past on Blue King Brown albums, so he was an obvious choice for the international nature of the project.
Love how he captures the slow dub vibrations, like on this version of ‘Mountain’.
Rebel Love (Dub)
‘Rebel Love’ Dubbed by our good friend and sound engineer from Kingston Jamaica Gregory Morris who also happened to be on tour with Jimmy Cliff the night we all met and he was there engineering the session as we were writing and recording it. We had a good session with this dub in Bob Marley’s Tuff Gong Studios. There’s a lot of great songs, sounds and frequencies that have come out of that room, that studio space.
Remedy (Dub)
Another Macro Dubplate mix. It’s really nice to hear this track broken down like this, feels like it could play on forever and you really get to hear the subtleties of the instrumentalists colourings, lines and licks.
Our music is to support and amplify this rizing consciousness on our planet … New Era Frequencies for the People!
Upcoming Shows
With Blue King Brown
Friday, 2 October CALOUNDRA MUSIC FESTIVAL CALOUNDRA
Saturday, 3 October NAROOMA BLUES & ROOTS FESTIVAL NAROOMA
Sunday, 4 October BEYOND FESTIVAL CANBERRA
Nattali Rize (unplugged)
Friday, 30 October UNSW ROUNDHOUSE SYDNEY
Saturday, 31 October MAX WATTS MELBOURNE
Monday, 2 November COOLANGATTA HOTEL GOLD COAST
