Review
Genre and Mood
General Elektriks is the project of the French keyboard player Hervé Salters, and Whisper to Me is funk, electro and soul at once: groovy, energetic and, in its refrains, soulful. The blog Dans mon Shazam summed it up as a universe of funk and groove with synthesised, very danceable pop melodies.
Song Summary
Salters wrote both words and music. The song came out in October 2015 as a single announcing a new album, To Be a Stranger, due in January 2016, and it is built on a contrast: the verses move like electro-funk, the refrains turn warmer and more soulful, and the song ends by handing the spotlight to the keyboard. Les Oreilles Curieuses counted it among the album’s most hit-like tracks.
Musical Breakdown
No source times the song, so the parts below follow the reviews rather than a clock.
Verse 1
The verses are what Les Oreilles Curieuses called restless electro-funk. No source breaks them down further; listen for what repeats under the voice.
Chorus
The refrains change the temperature. The same review heard them as more soulful, and that switch from funk to soul is the shape of the whole song.
Climax
The ending rises to what the review called a finale in apotheosis, carried by a keyboard solo of the finest effect.
Outro
The album version runs four minutes and thirty-six seconds; the official clip, directed by Arno Salters and produced by Iconoclast, is a shorter cut.
Concepts in Focus
A groove is the repeating rhythmic feel that makes a body move, and it is where Whisper to Me lives. Salters came up as a session keyboard player, and the reviews describe the song first by its pulse: funk, groove, danceable. Listen to the verses for the parts that repeat and lock together rather than for the melody on top.
The song is also a clear lesson in verse-chorus form. Here the verses and the refrains do not just alternate; they belong to two related styles, electro-funk and soul, so each return of the chorus feels like a change of light. The keyboard solo at the end breaks the pattern and lets the instrument have the last word.
Artistic Context
Salters played keys in Paris for Femi Kuti, -M-, Vercoquin and DJ Mehdi before moving to San Francisco in 1999, where he joined the circle of the Quannum collective and Blackalicious. As General Elektriks he released Cliquety Kliqk, Good City for Dreamers and Parker Street. He conceived To Be a Stranger in Berlin; it came out on 29 January 2016 on Wagram Music and 3ème Bureau, with the live album Punk Funk City later that year. For more French funk of the decade, hear Deluxe – Tum Rakak.
Impact and Reception
Hop Blog rated the album 7.5 out of 10, hearing a warm, cheerful mix of pop, electro, funk, jazz and soul, an improbable cross of Rémy Bricka and a French Prince. Wait for the keyboard solo at the end.
