The playlist: new bands – Little Simz, Rathborne, Twerps and more
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Version 0 of 1. Little Simz – Frozen Simbi Ajikawo, alias Little Simz, was chosen by Tinchy Stryder as his favourite unknown artist in a Guardian feature on cult heroes that ran last summer. There she was, next to Peter Hammill and Sun Ra et al, a 20-year-old sometime actor whose slew of mixtapes and EPs has won the rising north Londoner and grime performer a support slot with Schoolboy Q and the patronage of André 3000, Snoop Dogg, Timbaland and Kendrick Lamar. Although new, obscurity is far from knocking for her. In fact, she might be the one to do what Lady Sovereign and countless other female UK grime artists before her didn’t quite manage: sustain a decent-length career and even, possibly, crack America. She’s certainly attracting plaudits from all the right names and all the right producers: the Californian singer-songwriter Tiffany Gouché provides the industrial atmospherica for Closer, a track from her latest EP, and elsewhere there are contributions from Jakwob and MeLo-X. But the most arrestingly exquisite moment is courtesy of German producer IAMNOBODI, who brings his brand of precision-tooled machine melancholia to Frozen, the song I played most all Christmas. It is the sound of lonely wintry sadness, sheer post-yule blues. Not sure if that’s Simz herself switching between grouchy rap and gorgeous R&B murmurs (she says at one point, “You know I’m not a singer”, although that might be self-effacement), but it’s going to be hard to beat this season and suggests Simz might be the eclectic, unclassifiable artist we’ve been waiting for. Rathborne – Last Forgiven Rathborne is a band fronted by Luke Rathborne. At least, going by the video it is a band – a press release about the music refers to Rathborne as “him” suggesting this might be a solo venture instead. Anyway. These are mere details; the point is, this is pure power pop. Rathborne has a high, keening voice that recalls Chris Stamey, while Last Forgiven has the breakneck jangle of a lovely old DBs track like I Thought You Wanted to Know. Rathborne even looks the power pop part, with the fucked-up-cuteness of a latter-day Alex Chilton or Dwight Twilley; as if he’s headed for cult hero-dom rather than the hit parade. If you recognise his name, that might be because he’s been around for a while: he recorded his first album, After Dark, when he was just 16, sneaking into the recording studio of his local college late at night and teaching himself how to use the equipment. Now he’s the grand old age of 23, and his new album, Soft, has been produced by The Strokes’ Albert Hammond Jr. If Last Forgiven is any measure, Soft will be well worth checking out, as any number of cognoscenti/Rathborne illuminati, including Devendra Banhart, have already done. You can see the appeal. Complex but melodic, sugary but acerbic, high-energy but suffused with ennui: it’s classic power pop. Tonik Ensemble – Until We Meet Again Much loved by US singer-songwriter John Grant, Tonik Ensemble is the operating handle of Anton Kaldal Ágústsson, an Icelandic producer/musician with a penchant for icily ambient soundscapes, hushed vocals, and orchestral passages. His debut album Snapshots, released in February, will appeal to fans of Sohn and other such new exponents of chilled, subtly emotional electronica. Soulful, spacious, Until We Meet Again offers a delicate, slowed-down dance music, like the long, drawn-out preamble to a Beloved or Pet Shop Boys track. Ghost Culture – Giudecca Ghost Culture is another solo electronic musician who you could imagine appealing to lovers of 80s synthpop. The reverent, semi-whispered vocals and brooding, melodic moodscapes aren’t a million miles from Depeche Mode. If you like the sound of that, the mysterious Londoner has a debut self-titled album out next week. Giudecca is the lead track from it, all buzzing bass menace and Movement-era New Order ghostly keyboards over which GC intones mournfully his instruction to “repeat your gentle words”. This project, we are told, began with Ghost Culture holed up in his bedroom, utilising a basic set-up consisting of a synthesiser, a sequencer and a couple of effects to “communicate the sounds and feelings he found trapped within himself”. Producer Erol Alkan, who signed Ghost Culture to his Phantasy label, has described the results as “[how] the Strokes would have sounded, had they been produced by Delia Derbyshire”. Intrigued? You will be. Twerps – Back to You Twerps are a self-described “janky-pop” group from Melbourne. Janky? Not heard that one before. They’re an indie band, a bit jangly, a bit shambling, with shades of the 60s via C86, with a little Flying Nun flavour. Back to You does that indie-ish thing of sounding buoyant, with its whistling synth pattern and skipping riff, while hiding a troubled sentiment. “Somebody out there is doing better than me/ They’re feeling free, feeling free, feeling freer than me,” worries guitarist frontman Martin Frawley, consumed with envy. Actually, make that co-frontperson: the flipside of Back to You, Shoulders, is sung by guitarist/keyboardist Jules McFarlane, who lends the track a woozy quality, like watching a tired shop assistant – or rather Shop Assistant – go through the motions. Their forthcoming album is called Range Anxiety, and should see the band further explore their modern-world qualms over a variety of retro-indie, um, janks. |