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Product Description An eclectic blend of pop/rock/funk, keyboard based, very melodic. Groove oriented. Review New York-based writer/performer/producer Valerie Ghent is heading directly against the currents of today's trends on her independent debut release, Unstoppable. While many artists are trying to create a lo-fi, flawed sound (and consequently spending many times their budget to appear "chic"), Ghent took the reverse tactic - focusing her limited budget while yearning to make every note and instrumentation sound perfect. Evoking comparisons of a soulful Nu Shooz - really! - Ghent takes the listener on a picture-perfect walk through a flawlessly produced wall of sound in which all keyboards, lead vocals, sampling and drum programming was performed by Ghent herself. Ghent is no newcomer to the music scene - her resume includes performing with Dizzy and the Romilars (who opened for Depeche Mode on their first ever New York City gig), Nursery School (who landed a top 30 hit on the dance charts) and touring with Debbie Harry. These credentials probably helped her land prominent behind-the-scenes musicians such as Knox Chandler of the Psychdelic Furs to contribute on other instrumentation. -- consumable online, april 1997We dont think of it often, but African music permeates American music. Its sort of in the shadows, but check it: that swinging drum beat, that shout, the energy, the feeling, the layering of the lines. Sure, you can find bits and pieces of these elements elsewhere in the world. American music is infused with all kinds of European elements (not the least of which is the whole song structure). But somewhere beneath it all the African spirit remains. Yet that spirit has such depth and breadth that it can form the foundations of very different musics. Both of this months discoveries, Valerie Ghent and Tom Roady, mine this rich vein with quite different results. Ghents Unstoppable CD covers funk, R+B, rock, and pop in a series that snap between forms like a hiker on switchbacks; Roadys One Tribe disc ambles across whole ranges of African-based music, from the percussive and trance-like to the danceable and the foot-stomping. Both musicians put these discs together under unusual and taxing circumstances; both took over two years to record. Ghent, who works as an engineer and backing vocalist for Ashford and Simpson, completed her CD at nights after days in the studio with the soul duo. The first record took so long. I dont want to do that again. Also, by the time I was done, I felt Id outgrown some of the songs, although some really developed over the course of the time that I worked on the recording. -- Keyboard Magazine, Discoveries column, March 1998a smart woman in a crafty business ...Valerie is amazingly accomplished not only as a performer, but as a composer, producer and computer programmer. Though you might not recognize her name, her bio reveals deep entrenchment within the established music world: her first band opened for Depeche Modes first show in the States; she studied the Synclavier Direct-to-Disk system for four years under British record producer Mike Thorne (who also worked with the likes of Soft Cell, til Tuesday, and Bronski Beat); since the late 80s shes worked with Grayson Hugh, Deborah Harry, The Communards, Laurie Anderson, John Cale, Siouxie and the Banshees, Defunkt, and most recently Ashford and Simpson--just to name a few. What this all means is that Valerie Ghent is no newcomer to the music business, and that is the way her music should be approached and listened to...Valeries work is so different from the demented wailing of todays Top 40 that it almost leans toward easy-listening; it isnt until you know of this womans experience (and expertise) that her whole style comes together as a cumulative picture of years of behind-the-scenes work. Its her first solo statement of all that shes learned from being a smart woman in a crafty business. -- t@p jan 1997 About the Artist Valerie Ghent, vocalist, keyboardist, producer, recording engineer, and record company president released "Unstoppable" on her own label, West Street Records in 1997. "Unstoppable" was voted "Best Record of 1998" by Belgian radio station "Plante Indie". Has worked with Ashford and Simpson for 10 years both in the studio and live. Toured/recorded with Deborah Harry (Blondie), Defunkt, Grayson Hugh and TM Stevens. Has had her own New York based band and regularily performs in the area. Band members: Valerie Ghent Benjamin Orick Singh Birdsong Booker King/Tony Bridges Sherryll Marshall Deborah Berg See more