Sa Ra sprinkle some cosmic dust Posted by Junior

Sa-Ra Creative Partners: Rosebuds and Glorious From: Glorious/Rosebuds (ABB Soul, 2004) There's nothing worse than hearing a track that blows you away then waiting and waiting for the album to accompany it. Sa-Ra's Rosebuds did exactly that to me with it's mixture of mid nineties swing vibes, madlib style quirkiness and stoned soul vocals. Combined with the track's flip side Glorious it convinced me that there was a new group on the block ready to change the direction of modern rnb. However, since cutting this 12" the group have focused on production rather than solo joints producing some solid tracks for, among others, Jurassic 5 and Pharoahe Monch; Pharoahe's Agent Orange in particular cementing their reputation on the hip hop scene as major players. The group have finally got an album coming out next month on Kanye's label featuring Pharoahe and J Dilla so all signs point towards a hip hop direction which is in no way a bad thing and it's always good to hear Monche getting some play. Despite this, part of me craves for them to offer up more in their earlier, soulified, format. We shall wait and see where they go next.