While The House That Soul Built tends to feature artists of a more traditional soul persuasion, it is important to recognise that soul music is a broad church with various offshoots and hybrid genres. Hence, we are delighted to feature a group on the rockier, grungier, and more explosive side of soul: Ese & the Vooduu People.
In a stroke of soulful serendipity, I stumbled across the band when having dinner in the restaurant Bun & Bar in Harringay, North London. My initial fears of their music drowning out my dinner conversation subsided once I heard their heavily electrified and smoky original material. Actively seeking them out, I attended one of their subsequent concerts at Pizza Express Live where they again impressed with a fiercely high-octane set.
Fronting the band is South London-born singer, songwriter, and guitarist Ese Okorodudu. The Vooduu People behind her are former Noisette drummer Pharoah Russell and bassist Basile Petite. Filling a niche in the contemporary soul music landscape, they aptly define their style as ‘electric soul’. It is a heavy and raucous sound with swampy, Hendrix-inspired compositions. The psychedelic soul influences are clear, as are the moody, noir Winehouse-esque stylings.
Ese’s voice sits in the middle of it all. She is not one for vocal pyrotechnics like many of her peers in the soul music world but rather leans into her thick, husky tone. There is a compelling juxtaposition between the explosive arrangements and Ese’s brooding, enigmatic delivery. She is the eye of the hurricane, an anchor to the chaos ensuing around her.
In addition to being a striking vocalist and guitarist, Ese’s original song writing is poetic and ruminating. Listen to two of our favourite originals below.
Fairytale
‘Nobody told you that this country ain’t free / That pigs don’t fly and money don’t grow on trees / But I would rather believe in a fairytale’
This tempo-shifting, pulsating rock tune provides a rather melancholic reflection on life’s harsh realities, coupled with the recognition of universal pain and strife: ‘Everybody’s got a story to tell / Secret lives, private hell’. With intertextual references to fairytales and folklore woven throughout, ‘Fairytale’ expresses a longing for escape and freedom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2fRgwSTFfo
Dynamite
‘Like opposite poles on a magnet I just can’t stay away / Black/white, yin/yang, dark/light, baby night or day’
Their second studio release, ‘Dynamite’, sees Ese meditating on her lover and the intense chemistry they share. The verses flow with a drunken swoon before the bombast of the chorus kicks in, capturing the heady and distorting effect of her infatuation. ‘Being in love is like being insane / And dynamite goes off in my brain’, she exclaims. While at its core a love song, there is a crazed emotion and danger underpinning ‘Dynamite’.
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Check our their Facebook page for information on their upcoming gigs. Their debut EP Dynamite is available to stream and purchase here.
