3 Feet High & Rising: Chris McClenney Sonically Paints D'Angelo "Left & Right," OutKast, Mayer Hawthorne & The Vincent Guaraldi Trio-evoking Portrait In Two EP (McClenney Music)
"When I first read this phrase at 16, it blew my mind: "all songs written, performed, produced, and arranged by D'Angelo." After that point, I knew [that was] exactly what I wanted to do for my debut: write, produce, and play all the instruments on my project (I recently learned, it was Prince who inspired D'Angelo to do this). To express myself to the full capacity of my abilities and strive to take a similar challenging, but rewarding, journey as one of my idols to create the debut that I truly wanted," singer, song-writer, producer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist Chris McClenney wrote within A Written Note On Portrait In Two. McClenney's self-released Portrait In Two EP, which was just released this past Friday, January 13th and followed by a Saturday Blue Not Jazz Club release show, was preceded by critically-acclaimed singles "Headlines," "Otherside," and "What You Mean to Me." McClenney has previously released a Soulection White Label: 014 EP and submitted production work to Atlanta-based emcee Rome Fortune and "Outta Sight / Dark Lavender Interlude" from D.R.A.M.'s recent Atlantic Records debut, Big Baby D.R.A.M.
Ahead of his Portrait In Two EP, Chris McClenney unveiled two unique re-imagining remixes of his own productions, "Tell Me" and "Pearl" (featured within the EP) on which "fans will hear a familiar Dance music styling from Chris reminiscent of his earlier more Club-tuned works." Portrait In Two EP really is one Hell of an expansive, seamlessly genre-blending effort, which at times throughout, reminds me of OutKast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, D'Angelo, Method Man & Redman's "Left & Right," The Roots, Mayer Hawthorne's A Strange Arrangement, and The Vince Guaraldi Trio's beloved Peanuts-popularized compositions. Portrait In Two EP is currently available for your streaming, downloading, and general enjoyment on Soundcloud, Spotify, Apple Music, Google play, AmazonMP3, etc. from Chris McClenney's own McClenney Music imprint in all of it's genre-blending 10-track glory. I'm sure this isn't the last we'll be hearing from The Talented Mr. McClenney and maybe, with any hope, we'll get a full-length Chris McClenney-produced Rome Fortune project!