J Tropic has been on our new music pages before, but this track might as well be his grand unveiling, because his music has reached a whole new level of cool with his cover of Earth Wind & Fire's "September". Granted, he's working with a hit song here as the base for the music, so he's already got a head start, but there were a million and one ways he could have messed it up, and he has successfully sidestepped all of those. The track is less than three minutes long, so by the time your ears really start to catch the groove, the music is winding down, but what time J Tropic does devote to remastering the already-stellar song is not wasted in the slightest. The beat is much slower than you'd anticipate from a cover of this sort, but it's got everything needed to get your head bobbing, and if you were a fan of the original, this should be right up your alley as well. The vocals on the track are provided by a new name to the party, Alyss, (she was the previously unnamed vocalist who sang on "Love Up" and "Who U Are") but she's doing a great job of making sure she won't soon be forgotten. Her voice works perfectly with what J Tropic has crafted here, and the two make a killer team if experimental R&B tunes are your jam. As always, J's tropical infusion is a welcome addition to the mix, and Alyss' rich vocals meld seamlessly with the rest of the package he so excellently provides. We're going to be seeing a lot more of either artist in the near future, no doubt, so get acquainted with both, and if you're a fan of '90s-inspired R&B, then you may have just stumbled on a new favorite artist (or two).
J Tropic & Alyss