To Permute The Protocol ...

To rearrange something that has been written in stone for years, is something relatively hard to come by, and in recent months, the closest thing to a revolution in R'n'B has been Joel Compass. However, some competition has emerged in the form of Leon Else who, with his single, Protocol, has managed to realign the way in which we perceive R'n'B, into something that we think you'll find quite seductive, but definitely quite spectacular.
You'll notice early on that it has the conventions of an R'n'B classic, like something that Usher could have come up with, marketed, and conquered the world with ... but something changes the way in which you're listening, and ultimately, the way in which this track is perceived, somewhere along the lines, and flips it on its head, into something much deeper, and actually, much more desirable than the humdrum R'n'B track of today.
The vocal blossoms throughout the song, and when you cotton onto this fact, you really listen in for when the next storming note will shoot in and whisk you off your feet. He manages to keep it concealed for a while, and could actually be compared to either Joel Compass, or maybe David Jordan, but there's no denying that this man has a voice, and by the end, where his heart is on show the most, he smashes every wall that faces him and manages, no more, to hide the vocals he has.
The musicality of this track is somewhat different too. Again, it begins with something a little more conventional, but soon fluctuates and contorts into something a little bit darker, more technologically advanced and, in some ways, a much closer fit to something along the lines of Dubstep. Though, all in all, where it manages to lie between the two genres, is very picturesque, and very good at telling a story.
We think Leon Else is somewhat of a marvel and if he and Joel Compass are capable of cracking the industry, then the way in which we make R'n'B could very well be changing in the next few years!
Paul.