Taylor McFerrin ft RYAT – Place In My Heart [Brainfeeder]

Son of the irrepressibly sanguine Bobby, Brooklyn-based beatboxer turned producer Taylor McFerrin has here, with the able assistance of RYAT’s stunning vocals, met an impotent soulful warmth with chilling introspection.

‘A Place In My Heart’ received no small degree of pre-release endorsement from jazz missionary Gilles Peterson, championing it on his BBC Radio 1 Worldwide show and including it in his Brownwood Bubblers Six. And a Rhodes-driven bubbler it undeniably is; deftly swirling through a subtle crescendo of heartstopping delicacy, populated by layered guitars and maddening moog, further interspersed with satisfyingly bassy bumnotes.

Conceptual fractured junglist Christina Ryat, having drawn comparison with Icelandic avant-garder Björk, here exercises a greater restraint over flights of the maniacal to bring the track a heartfelt and haunting air.

Completing the picture of rounded erudition, the cinematic and appropriately disquieting video, featuring Taylor’s brother Jevon, places the subject matter firmly in the territory of a lover’s watery suicide. Gulp.

‘Place In My Heart’ was released as a single [Brainfeeder] and appears as ‘A Place In My Heart’ on the Gilles Peterson compiled Various Artist album Brownswood Bubblers Six [Brownswood Recordings].

Taylor McFerrin feat. Ryat – Place in My Heart from Simon Benjamin on Vimeo.