Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators - Holdin’ On (Afronaught Remix)
Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators album Keep Reachin’ Up came out in 2007, but unfortunately missed out on the album sales of the soul revival that took place during that year. However, this was one of my favorite albums of that year. Nicole Willis has had a long career in the music industry. Take a look at her brief bio from last.fm
Nicole Willis was born in 1963 in Brooklyn, NY. She started out in London in the mid-80’s where she teamed up with members of The Brand New Heavies. Later, having returned to NYC she was part of the earliest line-up of Deee-Lite. She then toured with The The, and in the early 90’s she was in the band Repercussions. Records were released on Mo’ Wax and together with the legendary Curtis Mayfield, the band recorded a version of Mayfield’s “Lets Do It Again”. She has also collaborated with Leftfield and Raw Stylus. In 1999 she moved to Finland and married to Jimi Tenor, who became also his producer. In Sahko/Puu Recordings she released her first solo albums Soul Makeover and Be It. In 2005 she began collaborating with the Soul Investigators and release Keep Reachin’ Up on Helsinki’s Timmion Records. Her song Feeling Free was chosen 2006 Worlwide Winner on the Gilles Peterson’s BBC show. Her songs are smooth, funky, and a joy to listen to.
A remix album was later released and was off the hook. I was excited to see that Afronaught, a founding member of Bugz in the Attic and producer of a song I will feature later that’s called by many “the broken beat anthem,” remixed one of my favorite songs on the album. The song features some of the funkiest afro beat style drumming I have heard and turns the song into a party classic… in my vision for the world.
