The Keymakers: “Burning Me Up” – a captivating combination of sounds

After dropping their critically debut single, “Good For You” during September 2017, the brothers Rome Alexander and Rederic who form the musical project The Keymakers, are back with their third, and brand new project – the single “Burning Me Up”, released on the 6^th of June 2018. This track obliterates, all of the commercialized trash that is cluttering the airways and giving listeners ear-infections with tired materialistic and blasé content. The Keymakers dish out smooth romantic rhymes dressed in satin and steel voices that resonate with ear-worming falsetto tones.

While R&B dominated the charts through most of the mid-90s, it began to lose a lot of its luster by the new decade. In an attempt to maintain relevance, many artists began to heavily incorporate pop and hip-hop sounds into their work. While that wasn’t necessarily a bad strategy – R&B had long borrowed from those sounds.

What it needed was a new turn of sound. EDM came to the rescue, and R&B as we knew it had totally changed. Simply put, the landscape morphed into something different, and while veterans have struggled to find themselves, many up and coming artists like The Keymakers have capitalized on the new world, giving us some really memorable music.

“Burning Me Up” is a great example of that new musical world, with an EDM-driven rhythm in the undercarriage while luscious R&B vocals vibrantly color the soundscape over the top. It makes for a captivating combination of sounds. It’s clear to me that Rome Alexander and Rederic worked hard to make a modern crossover R&B track.

It’s also a brave effort not to feature any rap artists. The labels and radio spins reflect that unless you have a rapper at the beginning, the middle or at the end of your song, it isn’t going to really get as much attention. But The Keymakers are a tight unit with an ambitious instinct who rely heavily on their own talent.

You’ll come to love The Keymakers music based on their way of looking at older formulas for constructing new R&B music – their voices, blending the softness of Smokey Robinson and urgings of Marvin Gaye, combined with the emerging electronic technologies give them that fresh flavor. It’s a direction that feels new age but in a warm way.

As expected with The Keymakers music, the combination of musical subtlety and professional craftsmanship reaches a new peak here. As consummate perfectionists, they plot each sonic move with tender love and care, allowing “Burning Me Up” to breathe with its own texture and character.

MORE ABOUT THE KEYMAKERS: Under the direction of Jesse Christophr and the AMAG artist collective, founded and headed by industry leader Anshuman “AM” Sharma, Rome Alexander and Rederic have been developing their artistry while writing and producing for others – which has included traveling each month to both Miami and Toronto for studio sessions with other talented musicians and producers. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, the two brothers now live together in Boston. Though very close from an early age, they worked on music almost completely independently from each other until 2016. This is the new chapter of their story.

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