Future Classic: Standing On The Corner (Self-Titled)

Driving through Williamsburg one afternoon on my way to Crown Heights to catch up with the one called Standing On The Corner I couldn’t help but notice the mismatched and rapidly changing realities I was driving through.

From block to block you experience a collage of living conditions and realities that don’t seem to work together or rather shouldn’t. But they do. A chaotic soliloquy set to its own rhythm. This is the Brooklyn of 2016.

In many ways Standing On The Corner’s self titled release sounds like the landscape in which it was created. At times it’s smooth and pretty, at times it’s rough and gritty. Moods and sounds abruptly change on you in the way one block can be the difference between organic kale and flavored sunflower seeds being your corner store options.

The tracks are undoubtedly soul music as interpreted by a young Brooklynite. This isn’t Marvin Gaye’s soul music , nor is it Ralfi Pagan’s for that matter. This is the soul music of a young cat whose musical pallet is equal parts G-Unit, Ray Barretto and Syreeta.

Personal favorites are “BNS”, “Santa Maria (Dedicated to Chuchita)” and “Girl”. “Santa Maria” in particular gave me chills in the way he layered the samples and moods. Those who recognize the sample understand why.

This release is something that is both timeless in sound as it is contemporary in feel. You hear the influences of a time past in the dusty and worn warmth of the layered sounds, but understand that it is current in the way it is all constructed. Just like the landscape in which it was created.

Christian Martir

Born in Santurce, Puerto Rico and now residing in New York City, Christian Mártir likens himself to a renaissance man. Over the last 7 years, as founder of the Rice & Beans Sound System, he has played and spread his love for Latin and Afro-Caribbean rhythms and culture.