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Live Review: Okenyo ‘Just A Story’ (Andy Bull Remix)

4 June 2015 | 9:30 am | Katie Rowley

Sounding a little like Janelle Monae or Erykah Badu, Sydney's OKENYO's track 'Just A Story' has been reworked by the excellent Andy Bull...

OKENYO boasts a distinctive and attractive voice, one that makes you stop and really take a listen. It’s in equal parts youthful and mature, with a wholesome timbre and a disco kick, a little like Janelle Monae or Shingai Shoniwa from UK indie rock outfit The Noisettes.

On tracks like 'Just A Story', her personality shows through in the way that she spits and sings lines like, ‘you better eat ya greens at dinner’ and ‘blah blah, that old chestnut’ – little flairs and charming touches that Andy Bull picks up on for his rework. He makes sure that the catchy hook remains, a repetition of ‘just wanna see them go’, enchantingly sung in round.

Okenyo is a real force to be reckoned with, one of those empowered and emblazoned women that other women fashion themselves on; mystical and expressive, with the cerebral qualities of Solange, Erykah or M.I.A. Her lyrics and music come from ‘an amalgamation of my own personal stories, classical or mythical tales, philosophers, writers and the people I love or have loved'.

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‘Just A Story’ seems to deal with the latter – those she has loved. Apparently inspired by an altercation with a friend, the song deals with notions of movement and unsettledness: ‘clinging to a rolling stone’. Either this is referring to Okenyo’s own restlessness, or, more likely, her wish to see fair weather friends and flakey individuals roll on out of her life (‘you just want to see them run, see them run’).

The Andy Bull rework is more percussive and upbeat than the original, structured around a flood of tambourines and a good old-fashioned drum kit. It’s at the same time a sparser production than Okenyo’s, with some delicate distortions and fading in and out of her voice; the addition of an undulating siren is interesting as it sits in the background, almost unnoticed but tying the track together.

There’s a fun clicking section in the middle which nods towards Okenyo’s naturalistic and organic style – it’s a simple rework which is slightly more electronically inclined than the original and with a more upbeat and funky take. Take a listen below.

Words by Katie Rowley

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