Benjamin Clementine – St-Clementine-on-Tea-and-Croissants
Benjamin Clementine has a fantastic story, and although the music should and does speak for itself, it’s pretty amazing to consider while listening. His voice is beautiful and he has the power and passion to crack and rattle and holler and squeal and do all this uncategorisable and totally “wrong” vocal gymnastics at just the right time to make my heart go pop. He expresses his convoluted history in every iota of his music and lyrics – Anglo-Franco-African accent and the kind of desperately loud and immediate piano playing any busker can relate to.
US Girls – Damn That Valley
Meghan Remy is a fucking genius. This whole album paints such a clear and poignant picture of female struggle – silent, long-suffering, jealous, humiliated. Her voice is super powerful and somehow reminiscent of 1960s girl-group classics, which could make the bleak oppression she portrays seem like history, if the rest of the music wasn’t so progressive. It makes me think about what has actually changed, and why we seem to have such a hard time changing anything. This song is about a woman who loses her man to war, with her lamentations swinging between anger and despair all over a totally sick beat.
Davido – Aye
Tingles. Davido is a big star of Lagos pop, and I especially love this song and its emphasis on love triumphing over materialism, which seems to be a pretty big thing in Nigerian pop culture (WizKid’s “Are you gonna dance babe / If I show you my money?” etc). The dizzying layers of rhythms echo more traditional music, but then there’s the sliced silences and banging drums and HUUUUGE chorus. Seriously this song makes me annoyingly emotional, as in, I’d probably hate me if I was with me listening to this.
Two Steps on the Water – Yo-yo
I first saw TSOTW at the Gasometer opening for Jaala (also badass) and it had been built up so much I was a little scared to be disappointed. That didn’t happen at all. I haven’t felt tears at that many gigs; well, more than your average person maybe, but, whatevs – but it was very moving. The members are a brilliantly mismatched trio – points of a triangle which, standing on opposing corners, but powerfully connected to each other, create a beautiful open space between. Good analogy, Nick. June, the guitarist and singer, is somehow fragile enough to be intimate, but strong enough to be inspiring and encouraging. The lyrics are a personal prayer for anyone feeling the big, big low.
John Wizards – Tek Lek Schrempf
While driving on the autobahn at 180km, with biblical rain pummelling the glass roof of our dinky ultramodern European family car, this song was playing and I felt, like every other time, my spine tingle. This is the most epic, fist-pumping thing on God’s green earth. John Wizards are an incredible band from South Africa. Their production is maniacal.
