This new track from emerging R&B collective Ascendant is taking us back to the land of funk. With the refreshing multi-vocals out front (handled by Michael Lockett and Kael Mboya with featured vocalist Donica Lynn) and a zing of Chic, this four-minute uptempo adventure flirts with old-school Shalamar pizzazz and Salsoul spirit.
The song’s message plays like a sermon from a motivational life coach. It may have even been sound advice for the band as they filtered through their own set of struggles in the making of their forthcoming EP, Illuminate: GREEN. “The band went through changes while we were working on the album,” writer and producer Kael Mboya wrote by email. “We started with one set of members. That original set broke up and we began another one– but then that set broke up, and we picked up another set. Life imitates art [and art] imitates life. We began to live what we were writing, and in the process of living it, that shaped what we were writing again.”
At times, you can even hear the influences of gospel music shaping up in the lyrics: “But know this life will knock you down (when you least expect it)/ Just get your feet on solid ground (ooh, to the source, we’re connected).”
We’re proud to present “Gotta Get Up” as our Song of the Month for September. It is a joyous way to start the month, and it is getting us fired up for Illuminate: GREEN, which arrives on September 27.
By J Matthew Cobb
Song of the Month
Ascendant – “Gotta Get Up”
