Calabra - Mazzara Return [International Feel]

Calabra is a London-based duo comprising DJ Toni Rossano and musician Neil Simons.

Having grown up as teenagers in the Midlands, the friends took different musical paths in the capital. Neil has worked as an engineer, mixer and producer for a wide variety of artists, while Toni, a DJ and producer, was part of the pirate soul explosion as Blackbeard in the noughties, and currently ventures under the gospel alias The Showfa.

Now, many years later...

The idea for Calabra was born during the blurry after-hours on the pebbles of a cold Brighton beach, and is the musical yearning for adventures on warm Balearic shores. Sun-drenched rhythms and melodic guitars lead an ensemble of analogue synthesizers, percussion, Fender bass, oboe and vocals, all with shades of 70s art-rock, New Age, folk and Ghanaian High Life.

Discovered by Gerd Janson, the Calabra EP features four debut tracks. The lead track, ‘Mazzara Return’, has a Balearic-style mid-tempo feel with lead guitar, house-style rhythms and ambient-inspired electronic atmospheres. This is followed by ‘Half Baked’, driven by sci-fi synths, with melodic Spanish guitar riffs and synth sequences for an exciting retro analogue sound. ‘Hustle’ begins with a live bassline and synth, accompanied by soothing guitar riffs fused with congas, bongos and cowbell rhythm, courtesy of percussionist Des Morgan from Yam Who?. The EP's grand finale, ‘Respiro’, features vocalist and songwriter Penelope Rossano, and is a folk/jazz-style ballad that highlights not only the poetic and gentle beauty of the song, but also her own oboe composition, offering a perfect close, with an extra instrumental as a bonus for this debut EP on International Feel.