Here’s a tune we thought might help get your weekend off to the right kind of start, from a contemporary West Coast blues artist who goes by the name of Fantastic Negrito. Fans of NPR’s All Songs Considered might recognize Negrito as the winner of the program’s inaugural Tiny Desk Concert Contest earlier this year, where he and his band beat out nearly 7,000 other entrants with this song, one of seven tracks you can hear on Negrito’s latest EP.
With its driving, trancelike rhythms and haunting moans, “Lost in a Crowd” is something of a modern-day equivalent of a work song, with Negrito’s initially hard, coarse vocals giving way to a much smoother, soulful voice and falsetto chorus by song’s end.
Want to hear more? Check out Negrito’s Tiny Desk Concert performance with NPR, which also provides some nice background on the musician, including his real name, a bit about his previous recording contract with Interscope Records, and the impact a near-fatal car crash had on Negrito’s life and career. And then be sure to listen to the rest of Negrito’s deluxe edition EP, where you’ll also hear a dark but equally powerful “An Honest Man”, the hypnotic “Night Has Turned to Day”, the soft, soulful ballad “The Time Has Come”, and the infectious, hitting-the-road grooves of “A New Beginning” among the additional tracks.