J.P. Bimeni & The Black Belts

With his timeless & soulful voice matched with a funky horn sound, Bimeni’s debut could easily be a recently-unearthed Stax discovery in the same vein as classic Otis – instead, the songs are very modern tales from a true soul survivor who has already been through more pain than most suffer in a lifetime.

A refugee who’s been living in London since the early 2000s following three failed attempts on his life, Bimeni sings songs of love & loss, hope & fear with a conviction that comes from the extraordinary experiences life has thrown at him. These experiences run through all the classic 60s-sounding Motown & Stax-inspired grooves of ‘Free Me’ as Bimeni says, “When I sing I feel like I’m cleansing myself: music is a way for me to forget”.