Showing posts with label Kate Tempest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kate Tempest. Show all posts

Monday, 27 July 2020

Kate Tempest - Holy Elixir (Live on KEXP)



Kate Tempest recorded this session for KEXP at Christmas 2019, seemingly in the midst of her US tour. You can watch the full set here.


Friday, 24 July 2020

Fantasy Festival number 10: The lineup

Jessica Winter: Brixton based artist Jessica Winter began her career in 2018 with a Halloween mixtape made with a laptop, piano and microphone. Her bedroom music is eclectic and varied, and she's been prolific since 2019. You can find out more here.

Mentrix: Iranian artist Samar Rad emigrated to Europe in the 1990s with her parents, returning to Iran as a young adult. She now lives in Berlin. Her music reflects both her Sufi heritage and Berlin's history of hard industrial music, but there's space and tension amidst the unyielding percussion. You can find out more here.

Automatic: Los Angeles band Automatic (not to be confused with Welsh band The Automatic or 1990s Mancunian guitar boys Automatic) make flawlessly executed, effortlessly cool post punk flavoured synth pop. You can find out more about them here.

Speech Debelle: Writer, activist, podcaster and MC, North Londoner Speech Debelle has been incredibly busy since she featured in 2017's Fantasy Festival lineup. While she's clearly looking to diversify her career, her creativity is not in doubt. You can find out more here.

Hollie Cook: Baby Slit, creator of 'jungle pop', and a key innovator within modern day lovers rock, Hollie Cook is three albums into a career that, with each album, has seen a rise in awareness and acknowledgement of her work. You can find out more here.

Kate Tempest: Poet, playwright, activist, mc and sage. Kate Tempest is no stranger to festival stages. You can find out more here.

Grimes: Five albums into an increasingly eclectic and innovative career, Grimes released her most recent album earlier this year. She is known for her intricate electro soundscapes, which incorporate influences right across the musical gamut, literally everything from classical music to grime. You can find out more here.

Billie Eilish: Teenage dark pop star Billie Eilish has been smashing records across continents these past twelve months. Getting her first UK number one single with the James Bond theme 'No Time To Die' and, in the process, becoming the youngest person to have a UK number one ever, being just one example. She should have been doing a UK arena tour this summer and it would be excellent to see her headline a festival. You can find out more here.

Tuesday, 17 December 2019

Songs of the year, number 15: Kate Tempest - People's Faces (Streatham Version)



The album version of 'People's Faces' was given a re-working when Kate performed the track live for Maryanne Hobbs on 6music not long after the albums release. This stripped down, re-worked version proved very popular, was re-played across the station, and then released as the 'Streatham Version' of 'People's Faces'.

The stripped down treatment, and minimalistic piano chords gave what was already a strong track an anthemic quality that chimed well with how 2019 was panning out. A real song for our times.

Monday, 14 August 2017

Kate Tempest performs Tunnel Vision - BBC Newsnight



This is Kate Tempest performing 'Tunnel Vision' from her current album Let Them Eat Chaos, live on Newsnight earlier this year. You can watch her full Glastonbury 2017 set online. 

Friday, 11 August 2017

Fantasy Festival #5: The Florence Festival - Lineup

Connie Constance: Connie Constance is a London based singer/songwriter who originally trained to be a dancer, became a poet, and then moved into song. The single she recorded with Jelani Blackman, 'Clouds', reflects this combination of poetry and song. She was tipped by ID as a future soul star in their Class of 2016 piece. She played the Afropunk festival in London late last month.

Georgia: Former footballer and drummer for Kate Tempest, Georgia released her 'post punky hip hop soul' debut album in 2015. She played a number of festivals in 2016, including British Summer Time and Eurosonic, and has just released a new E.P 'Feel It'. She has just played LeeFest, and will be playing Lost Village festival later this month. 

Speech Debelle: Mercury Music prize winner Speech Debelle is a London based rapper and social activist who makes understated, multi layered, narrative urban survival music. She has released two albums and, last year, a self released EP. She is currently touring the UK and is playing Shamabala Festival and Greenbelt Festival in late August. 

Overcoats: Overcoats are a folkatronic or 'folk-soul' duo from New York whose music has been likened to Simon & Garfunkel. They released their debut album earlier this year and are touring the US throughout the summer and autumn. They would have played at all three of the Dot To Dot festivals in late May, but pulled out in the wake of the Manchester Arena bombing.

Kate Tempest: Musician. Novelist. Poet. Playwright. There is seemingly nothing Londoner Kate Tempest cannot do. She headlined The Great Escape in 2015, "moved people to tears at Glastonbury 2017", and was the guest director at Brighton Festival in May. Her current, extremely timely, album Let Them Eat Chaos was released in 2016. She is playing a large number of festivals this summer.

Angel Olsen: Angel Olsen is a singer/songwriter from St Louis, Missouri. She began her musical career with Will Oldham (Palace Brothers, Palace Music) but her 2014 debut took her away from alt. country territory and into dark indie rock. 2016's My Woman married folky strumming to Velvet Underground infused guitar pop and garage rock distorted vocal stomping, all with a dash of eighties synth pop and sixties girl group melodies. It gained fans amongst the staff at Piccadilly Records in Manchester, Florence Welch, and Helen McCookerybook, amongst others. Angel is currently touring Europe, including the UK, and will be touring the US throughout the autumn. Her date at Green Man festival next week has sold out. 

Cat Power: Cat Power, aka Chan Marshall, from Atlanta, Georgia, has been making music since the early 1990s. Her early work featured choppy guitar work and raw vocals. She then went through a slow, minimalist phase, a critically acclaimed soul phase, and has in recent years emerged as a full blown soul electronica artist with anthems such as 'Cherokee' and 'Ruin'. She played a US date last week, but it looks as though no other dates are planned at the moment.

Florence + The Machine: Londoner Florence Welch formed Florence + The Machine in 2007. The name derives from the stage names Welch and keyboardist Isabella Summers gave themselves when writing songs together as teenagers: Florence Robot and Isa Machine. The bands first appearance at Glastonbury in 2007 was later described by Welch as "A complete shambles" and comprised of a muddied, sleep deprived and tearful Florence singing her set acapella until her guitarist arrived. These days, ten years and three albums down the line, Florence + The Machine are a veritable orchestra (there were twelve of them at the last count), no strangers to the festival circuit in the UK, US and Europe, and have headlined Latitude in 2010, Glastonbury in 2015, and British Summer Time in 2016. The band are not currently touring.