Solo Music: What's Buzzin'? - Baleh!

Blog Post | Solo Music – What’s Buzzin?

Artist highlight: Baleh.

An artist to keep an eye out for in the local music industry is Baleh. If you haven’t added his music to your playlist, you’re missing out on the much refreshing alternative sound coming out from Solomon Islands. The best thing by far is that his sound is not heavily saturated by the afro-influenced rhythm that seems to be the trend. Yet, you are in to find elements of nostalgia and chill with an overlay of fresh melodies – that’s some recipe for a fresh cook up.

From his 2022 catalogue ‘Gari Ni Gotini’, ‘Dadi U Sorreh’ and ’48 KM’ (which you can find on streaming platforms including Spotify and YouTube) it is easy to pick out the rhythmic arrangements of clever acoustics and pan flutes which make it difficult to skip and easy to play on repeat.

His recent unplugged performance with Dada Blank on ZFM shows confidence and proves that he is made for the big stages. In a space where it is easy to be drawn into the rip curl of overly hyped nonsense lyrics and common ‘skank’ cut-orientated production, let’s hope this emerging singer-songwriter and performer maintains his authentic brew of crisp acoustic guitars, soft pan flutes, and wavy island melodies under coconut drum lines.

Speaking exclusively to Matana blog, Baleh hinted something is cooking up in the kitchen for all of you Solo-Music fans and supporters in the country and abroad. Good people, you just have to be in tune to Baleh’s social media for some mellow updates in the weeks and months ahead.

On the long term, as a composer, singer, songwriter, and creative performer he has bigger goals, and you know what that means – riding the giant waves around the Pacific and further around the globe. But that does not come easy. There are still practical challenges like being exposed only with minimal stage time for performance opportunities, difficulty to consistently access studio and coupled with recording costs, plus the everyday hustle of life in Honiara for a music artist.

Despite the odds, he has plans in place and step by step developing them into action. This young talent is about to bring you another heatwave. For his music tag, Baleh describes it perfectly in these words: “music is culture itself, so hem ID blo yumi too” …and that is a statement that deserves a national round of applause.

Lovely ladies and cool gentlemen, remember these words – Baleh is one to be reckoned in the new wave of young and fresh musical talents coming out from the Solomon Islands.