So it’s another installment of Future Flavours and thankfully I have not been too busy that I couldn’t get my fingers on the keyboard to inform you about some hot to boot freakin talent!
Of course this installment will bring you exceptional talent, a guarantee that will be more water tight than the pre-nup that Kanye and Kim will be signing to protect their respective millions, talent that is more addictive than Lamar Odom’s alleged cocaine habit and certainly more substantial than Khloe Kardashian’s posterior- I always felt she was more bootylicious than the slightly vacant Kim.
So who’s up?…….Well look out for some grunge indie from the brilliant band Bambi who have featured on the new music program I am associate producer for, Quality Control (check the LINK to the episode), some beautifully avant-garde hip-hop/soul from 2Morrow’s Victory, some esoteric vibes from FKA Twigs, some melancholic niceness from Douglas Dare, brilliant dance vibes from the duo Anushka (yes it is a duo) and a bit of Everything from WME.
I really do spoil you too much rather like Kim and Kanye’s baby, Compass Point who no doubts wears the highest fashion clothes even though he will only lavish it in vomit and excrement at every given opportunity-let’s go in!
Bambi-definitely not soft, cuddly and doe eyed
Reverb, rolling Eric Clapton esq guitar riffs, rolling drum riffs, sweet bass guitar vibes and a vocalist with that curly brown hair that keeps covering his eyes (he is worth it)-welcome to a five piece indie Essex band minus a slightly weathered Ford Capri.
I was introduced to the band by their manager Adam who lauded them (unsurprisingly) as a band with huge potential. So I asked Adam to send me some u-tube footage and indeed it was the first thirty seconds that confirmed everything for me-what do you reckon?
The band has only been together for 8 months but there is clearly a real chemistry and musical understanding with the current group. Luckily I witnessed them live when they came down to perform at Quality Control for the forth coming episode. Their musical compositions give the music time to breath so it’s not a constant vocal barrage at times it’s just pure instrumentation that pushes you willingly into the world of Bambi. Their talent has already garnered them support slots for acts like Tom Odell and Professor Green-again I stress all in 8 months or so.
At the moment from a visual perspective there is only that U-tube video that I added but I know we are going to get a lot more from visuals from this group. Indeed the plaudits for this newly formed group are already raining down from Gary Powell (The Libertines) to radio DJ’s from XFM they are all being absorbed willingly into Bambi.
While more of us are assimilated (the name for fans are ‘Bambinos’) into the indie soundtrack of Bambi, look out for their debut release Reap From The Dying Love which is total atmospheric, guitar laden joy due out on November 17th.
2morrow’s Victory-Needs You!
With a name that conjures up images of Winston Churchill as he calls people to arms while his jowl flops from left to right and he smokes an ozone deteriorating Cuban cigar, 2morrow’s Victory is an avante garde hip-hop/soul outfit.
When I say hip-it is definitely not your Kanye West type of hip-hop I am talking that soulful hip-hop that is so cool (Kanye is cool but in a louder more commercial manner). In many respects they kind of remind me of a little bit of the sublime Foreign Exchange made up of the talented Phonte and the productive flair of Nicolay. Raphael and Greg just ooze the fundamental credentials of class. Check these cuts out.
The band are on the Brownswood label (always a label that brings something that is slightly left field but majorly classy they have Ghost Poet on their roster) are an American/ UK duo. Formed initially by Rafael Powell a drummer from the UK, Raphael then bucked up with Greg B a Chicago rapper based in London who supplies the distinctive verbals. Incidentally Greg is a double threat able to drop some suitably cool singing-love him on a cut called Bamboo absolutely smacks it.
Influences to the band are names like the brilliant Little Dragon and the productive genius of Madlib so the sound they drop is unsurprisingly quite esoteric in nature and slightly surreal hip-hop/soul-me love it like Bruce Jenner loves the opportunity to be a man!
Musical output is measured clearly they are focused on quality not quantity and that shows with the small-ish selection from their catalogue all certified bangers in my estimations. Using elements of electronica, exquisite drum loops, live drum beats and portions of synths.
Hip-hop is definitely at the core and you can always hear those influences but they pull inspiration from any number of genres (too many to list). The music deviates at a will and at times tracks will not even be blessed with a single bar from Greg for the first minute or two but far from being irritating it’s like opening a box of chocolates with no info on the chocolates (note coffee chocolates are omitted in this box)-‘umhhh chocolate truffle’
Visuals point to a modus operandi that avoids typical ideas of hip-hop videos further more- not one curvaceous booty blessed by an almost not there thong.
If you check out their website you will get more musical gems but watch out for this group if you want to experience something a little different.
FKA Twigs-breaking convention
From a slightly esoteric duo to a singer called FKA Twigs who resides in LDN who is soooo esoteric I am not sure if she is truly from this planet. Whether she is from another planet or not Twigs is an artist who is definitely following her own lane, her own country road, actually she is just walking through a new forest and making a path for others to follow in her trip-hop hypnotic sounds. Check this video Water Me produced by someone I will definitely follow Jesse Kande with co-production by Twigs.
Twigs is most certainly about the package-her vocals are truly haunting, her visuals for her videos are mesmerising and beautifully disturbing, while her song writing seems to want to cover every subject that is slightly risqué or just emotionally raw like bringing up the subject of Chris Humphries to Kanye West –‘where is that mother……?’.
Check the artistic black and white qualities of the video for Papi Pacify Me-not for those easily offended or indeed those that find a man putting his hand around a lady’s neck in a sexually charged manner…..off key?! Of course check the verbals for the track which have a sexual charge (not in that porn manner) that could light a room. From the video to the lyrics it kind of reminded me of Madonna’s (then) controversial Justify My Love (1990)-check it out.
Twigs dropped her first EP back in 2012 and this set her on the radar of all that seek to hear about top talent first but of course hearing an artist drop something first could also be the last time you hear them and so caution was understandable.
Now however she has dropped her second EP simply called EP2 and what a lavish, rich off the wall musical second project. Dropped on the infinitely cool label Young Turks who brought you Mercury winners The XX, Twigs is really setting her stall out in a big way.
There’s something of the Bjork in her from her off beat delivery and her apparent willingness to embrace all that is enticingly strange. I just cannot get enough of her but I accept that for some it maybe too intense but for me it’s just right.
I really cannot wait to see this lady on a live set it should be a very memorable show in the meantime she’s one to watch for sure!
Douglas Dare-To infinity and beyond.
Ok we enter something that I like to call melancholic joy. Douglas Dare the singer with a name that should of course be a super hero of some kind saving the world from commercial blandness.
There’s no getting away from it Dare’s slow piano driven music drops you into a place of emotional suppression but like Scott Dissick being oppressed and pushed around like a first class chump by the female led hyena pack of the oestrogen powered Kardashians-you just like it!
This number called Lung Full taken off his debut EP Seven Hours, fully elucidates the melancholic joy-indeed this is actually a love song of sorts detailing a relationship where Douglas implores the object of his attraction to know that he will not let them fail-he asks them to ‘hear the bugles’.
Douglas unsurprisingly was born to a family of pianist his father to be exact and as the bio details go he was composing music from a young age. In terms of his writing however his lyrics are melded together with elements of his poetry that he started to write when he was at the University of Liverpool where he studied popular music.
So his debut EP is a four track piece of aural sublime musical diamonds. You are not going to get up and suddenly want to drop a pina colada before jamming out after you hear Douglas’ compositions but that is not what I perceive his music to be about. Douglas’ music is orchestral in many ways it requires headphones on, eyes shut as you take in every piano key and every word. May favourite track off this great EP is Seven Hours the title track-it’s immense.
Look out for Douglas headlining at St Margaret’s Chapel on the 13th November.
Anushka (it’s a duo by the way)
From melancholy to up-beat dance vibes from a group that make you want to stand up and take Rob Kardashian on a vigorous run to sweat off burger juice before saying: ‘Rita Ora is now with Calvin Harris get over it man’-
‘but I miss her’
‘for goodness sakes!’
I met one half of Anushka (singer song writer Victoria Port) through one of my musical contacts Noah (big up bros) when we attended the Bilal concert in Islington. Bilal incidentally showed himself to be so rock and roll I thought he might grab the second most irritating vermin (the pigeon) and bite its head off. I digress-the other half of this duo is Max Wheeler the productive flair for the group.
So what’s to love about this group who are signed to Brownswood (yep it’s that label again) well everything? From the get up and take Rob Kardashian for another run to sweat off steak juice beats-
‘are you still pining Rob?’
to Victoria’s vibesy vocals it’s special. We could of course draw comparisons to them as the dance version of Aluna George but they are different and dare I say a bit cooler?!
Their debut EP released on the 15th of April was Yes Guess and from the opening title track to the last track Anushka this four track EP is awash with bass heavy dance beats; long intros, slightly falsetto soulful vocals from Victoria (she kind of sounds like Erykah Badu) before the spine tingling anticipation for the track to drop-oh yes where’s your whistles? Biggest track on the EP for me has to be Anushkah this last track has smidgens of the old skool rave sounds about it and it’s big!
So following on from the EP we are looking for a debut album dropping next year and lo and behold your boy Semper aka Atstreetlevel1 got an exclusive of their fresh vid for their latest single Never Can Decide for Halloween.
Check out their forth coming performances
9th November: UK NOW Festival, Hanoi (Vietnam)
10th November: Q4, Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)
16th November: KOKO, London (UK)
WME (what’s that stand for?)
Well WME is a productive trio with the anachronism standing for We Make Everything and in many respects they do. I would limit it however to everything basically under an urban flex but I am sure they delve into a multitude of genres we just have not heard them yet.
Anyway right now it’s the kind of beats that would make Kanye West slightly jealous as heavy, extremely heavy beats and bass reverberate inside your head and through all 206 of your bones. It’s a mix of RnB type vibes mixed with the energy tantamount of crunk-it’s unadulterated club bangers from mid tempo to up tempo numbers.
So how good are the trio of Guy Furious, Tom Smith and vocalist Stephen Chase? Well let’s name drop-they have already dropped remixes for the likes of Nicole ‘you are so damn fine’ Scherzinger and the Far East Movement who gave us that huge vibe in 2010 Like A G6.
Further name dropping comes courtesy of their EP Good Company which was released in September which features the productive creativity of names like Planet IV who were behind the track We Can’t Stop by Miley Cyrus (you might know it).
Now signed to BMG Chrysalis the question might then be when will this group who are reminiscent of N.E.R.D blow?