Just 2 Give Y'all A Taste is an apt title for this 6-track EP by Brian Abais.
And what a fine taste we get. All songs were written, produced and recorded by Brian on his own Abais Soul Records imprint with some fellow musicians playing additional instruments like guitar or sax.
Brian was born in 1976 in Paramaribo, Suriname. He is the third child out of five brothers and a sister. In 1982 the whole family moved from Suriname to the Netherlands to find better life opportunities.
His love for soul music was initialized after he heard songs by Otis Redding and Sam Cooke (not a bad influence of course) and this can clearly be heard on the stand-out cut At This Moment. This song has a great southern feeling to it which can be best described as Stax or Hi Records 2004 and Brian sounds like a cross between Al, Otis and Sam. This is just simple, classic soul music and the EP is worth getting for this particular track alone.
But Brian has something more in stock. There's the equally appealing You'll Be Fine that also digs deep into soul music's pedigree and is another highlight.
Brian feels equally at home with a mixture of urban and nu soul that can be heard on Armed & Ready though it fails a little to impress me, but then I'm not really a fan of urban music. Much better is the sax-ridden funky It's Gonna Get You and the downtempo tune Angel. Add to this a pleasant acapella intro (Wo Hey)and you have an impressive and very good debut, that makes your mouth water of things to come.