Aya is no stranger to the Naked Music camp. You may recognize her voice as the singer of Sweeter Love, produced by Jay Denes and released in 1999 on Wave Records.
Five years on and Jay Denes has established his Naked Music Recordings label as a force in the deep house music area to reckon with; and finally we also get the release of Aya's first full-length album Strange Flower.
Aya has previously worked with the likes of Lenny Kravitz, the Pharcyde or Stuart Matthewman for the second Sweetback album.
Produced by Jay Denes this is an album chock-a-block with excellent smooth, deep and sexy songs with Aya's ethereal voice on top. Fans of the Naked Music sound who loved the Blue 6 or Aquanote album will love Strange Flower at once. All the others will hopefully be converted by tracks like Looking For The Sun or 45 Parade Place, a song that reminds me of the Naked Music remix of Sade's By Your Side. In fact Aya's voice is sometimes reminiscent of Sade Adu, which of course isn't a bad thing.
Although you know in an instant after the first seconds that this is a Naked Music release because it has that typically sound written all over, Strange Flower offers enough variety to avoid feelings of boredom or repetitiveness.
For example take the mid-tempo soul-funk of Uptown, the first 12"-single that preceded this album release (Jay Denes' wonderful dub version is also included) or the slow electro-infused groove of Do What You Want.
With Curtain Call Aya delivers a beautiful acoustic-guitar dominated ballad about a sad love affair.
Add to this further winners like You're Not The Only One, the deep rhythms of Slippin' or the funky shuffling of Nobody Knows Me and you get nearly an hour of pure deep and sexy listening joy, that's highly recommendable.