We discovered her when she played at the MaMA Festival in Paris in October 2021, and we instantly fell in love with her music and her energy. As soon as she entered the stage, Crystal Murray took the crowd into her soulful yet avant-garde world, filled with sharp melodies and atmospheres ; unapologetic & free, Crystal Murray’s music goes far beyond the music genre’s main stereotypes & codes that rule the music industry today.
Crystal Murray came back a few days ago with a mixtape that includes some of her main hits while still uncovering some brand new tracks, confirming the path she has chosen for herself and whose hundreds of thousands of listeners follow along gladly : brand new melodies, unique voice grain and featurings – among which we get to hear the soulful voice of Thee Dian as well as Le Diouck’s precise voice and flow, both of whom she signed to her own label called Spin Desire – make “Twistes Bases” a mixtape that represents the very essence of her artistic vision.
Introduced by the excellent and eclectic track named “BOSS” that she unveiled almost a year ago in a (very) on-brand COLORS session, Crystal Murray explores the up and down of getting to know yourself to its full extent in this 10 track mixtape. She had already shown the whole world that she knows how to play with her soul and gospel roots by going from high to lows with her voice with infinite ease ; today, with “Twisted Bases”, it’s not only her voice that fits wherever she is able to go, but all of her music, no matter the music genre she decides to tackle.
After the syncopated track that is “BOSS”, it is the opposites “Like It Nasty” and “Too Much to Taste” that we get to hear — two tracks which, although they are indeed opposite in terms of energy, both speak of the same theme of self-acceptance and sexuality – the duo these two tracs form are as complimentary as light and shadow. These tracks have allowed her to reach an international audience and even got her on television sets, and we perfectly understand why !
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We have to wait for the second part of the mixtape to discover Crystal’s other musical facets : “Hot Mess” flirts with the R&B vibe of the 2000s while “Ego” takes us by surprise with the extremely avant-garde aspect of its arrangements. By adding vocoder to the leading voice & leaving the backing vocals clear, Crystal Murray draws her audience in her world with unprecedented ease.
While of course she didn’t need to convince anyone of her innate talent for music, she nevertheless affirms her unique artistic vision with this mixtape – a mixtape that already makes us want to listen to more of her tracks. We will definitely be keeping an eye out for her next releases and in the meantime, we’ll leave you with the music video for “Too Much To Taste” so that you can admire the visual expression of Crystal Murray’s many talents !
Crystal Murray is to be found on all streaming platforms. You can also follow her on Instagram !
