Natasha Kmeto - trust issues

Taken from last years you've never danced alone album, 'trust issues' shows Natasha Kmeto at her most sparsely intimate. It's minimal but its hypnotic, poignant and unflinchingly honest. Like a diary entry set to an electro soundscape. 

Natasha Kmeto - “Pour Down”

You can watch the whole of this set as a playlist of separate videos on YouTube here.

Fantasy Festival number 21: The Lineup

Liz Lawrence: Liz Lawrence released her second album of indie rock, Pity Party, last year. It featured the understated observational deadpan of 'None of my friends are OK'. She was touring earlier this year, and it's to be expected that she may well have dates planned for the future, circumstances permitting. You can find her on Insta.

The Paranoyds: Achingly cool LA punk pop band The Paranoyds have been around for a few years now. Their debut album, Carnage Bargain, was released last year. You can find them on Bandcamp.

Starcrawler: The outrageous LA garage punk band are fronted by Arrow De Wilde, the feral lovechild of Iggy Pop and Cherie Curie. They have released two albums of stomping punk classics, are terrifying live, and you can find out more here.

Natasha Kmeto: This Portland based multi instrumentalist, producer and singer makes evocative, clever, sexy feel good electronic music. You can find her on Bandcamp.

Kelly Lee Owens: "Convention-blurring techno producer/musician" is what it says on her Bandcamp, and you can't really argue with that. Her self titled, self released debut album was released in 2017 when she was still living in Wales, and quickly became both a critical and word of mouth success. Since then it seems like everybody wants to work with her. Her second album is, it is fair to say, very keenly anticipated. You can find her on Bandcamp.

AURORA: Norwegian singer, songwriter and producer Aurora has released three highly conceptual albums of electro art pop. You can find out more here.

Kelsea Ballerini: Tennessee country pop singer and songwriter Kelsea Ballerini has released three albums of country flavoured pop and cites Shania Twain as her greatest influence. As an artist who has grown up with pop crossover artists such as Twain and Taylor Swift, it's not surprising that she is able to straddle the pop and country worlds with such ease. You can find out more here.

Lady Gaga: The phenomenon that is Lady Gaga was born Stefani Germanotta in New York in 1986. She is a singer, songwriter and producer. 2008's aptly titled debut album The Fame was her breakthrough moment, and it's been non stop ever since for her. Musically, she remains a dance and pop orientated artist but, over the years, she has taken inspirations from metal, country and Americana, and even made a brief foray into the easy listening world with her Tony Bennett collaboration, Cheek to Cheek. "Do you want to be the next Madonna?" she was asked once "No" she replied "I want to be the next Iron Maiden". You can find out more here.

End of year list with a difference

I thought I'd try taking a departure from the usual end of year lists format this year, having not done one since 2014 because:

A.) Florence + The Machine would have won everything in 2015, and that would have made for a pretty repetitive blog post

B.) 2016 was such a weird year it required a different approach.

So, 2017... 

I remember writing in my diary at the end of 2015 'Well, thank God that's over' or words to that effect, little knowing the horrors 2016 would bring, and indeed, 2017...

One last thing:

Because I didn't do a list in 2016, the rule I'm working to is: If it was released in 2017, or if it was released in 2016 but I didn't hear it until 2017 then it's OK to include it. 

Favourite article of the year to write (By me): Women and music festivals, again (The F-Word)

Perhaps this is a little misleading... It wasn't so much a case of 'enjoying' it as being gripped by a hurricane that wouldn't let me go until I'd finished it, 48 hours later. And it led to a whole series of posts on here as well, plus 7 fantasy festival bills I'd like to see.

Expect to read more on this issue, and related issues, in 2018.

Favourite article of the year (Not by me): What I learned from a year of dumpster diving in Australia (Medium)

You will be staggered by this... really staggered, and possibly inspired as well.

Favourite tattoo of the year: This one from The Studio in Manchester

Such a collision of difference reference points, and no one else will have one like it. Genius.

Favourite disclaimer of the year: Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, Duke of York Theatre, London

Favourite foul mouthed ear worm of the year:

A tie between St Vincent's 'New York' and Peking Duk/Icona Pop's 'Let You Down', both of which feature copious and enthusiastic use of the f word.


Favourite anti-Donald Trump song of the year:

Grace Mitchell 'Kids (Ain't Alright)' did it for me in the end, conveying as it does a real sense of bewilderment and 'What the fuck just happened?!'. That said, favourable mention (obviously) goes to Arcade Fire and Mavis Staples for 'I Give You Power', which they had the foresight to release on inauguration day.


Favourite double edged single of the year:

Natasha Kmeto, 'Pour Down/Free For Tonight'

Side A: Full on rainbow coloured lust on the dance floor

Side B: An equally killer dance anthem but with the underlying razorblade in the floss that it was a song pointing to the fragility of LGBTQI spaces

Favourite breaking artist of the year:

Overcoats.

The New York duo more than punched above their weight this year, with an impeccable debut album and strong singles. Their tours in the US are now headliner tours and are getting longer and longer. Let's hope we see them in the UK soon.

Most fully realised psychogeographic album of the year:

EMA, Exile in the outer ring

A dystopian postcard from the US mid west. 

Most eerily prescient album of the year:

This is a tie between Kate Tempest's Let Them Eat Chaos and Father John Misty's Pure Comedy. The former hinted, in various ways, at a number of societal factors that were all about to converge in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower disaster, whereas the latter clearly signposted the warning signs of a US that had just elected Trump president.


Favourite video of the year:

Georgia, 'Feel It'

Favourite 'Where the hell did that come from?!?' album of the year:

Kelly Lee Owens, Kelly Lee Owens, as signposted by Piccadilly Records.


Favourite gig of the year:

A tie between Gothic Tropic at The Castle Hotel as part of the Manchester leg of Dot To Dot, 26th May 2017 and Honeyblood at Gorilla, 21st December 2017 (review currently in progress, stymied by Christmas...)

Band to watch in 2018:

Pearl City

They provided strong support to Honeyblood at Gorilla on 21st December and are a Manchester duo who used to be known as Bernard & Edith and now appear to have renamed themselves after a mancunian Chinese restaurant. They sound a bit like Kate Bush fronting a dark wave band... Am expecting good things. 'Flames' is out now.

Albums of the year:

15) Wolf Alice, Visions Of A Life
14) Jesca Hoop, Memories Are Now
13) Bully, Losing
12) Rews, Pyro
11) Pink Milk, Purple
10) Zola Jesus, Okovi
9) Kelly Lee Owens, Kelly Lee Owens
8) Noga Erez, Off The Radar
7) Honeyblood, Babes Never Die
6) Wild Ones, Mirror Touch
5) Helen McCookerybook, The Sea
4) Gothic Tropic, Fast or Feast
3) St Vincent, MASSEDUCTION
2) Overcoats, Young
1) XX, I See You 

Songs of the year:

I have made a Spotify playlist of these songs, but Helen McCookerybook's most recent album is not available on Spotify so I have included a link to the song on YouTube instead.

20) Grace Mitchell, 'French Becky'
19) Halsey and Lauren Jauregui, 'Strangers'
18) London Grammar, 'Truth Is A Beautiful Thing'
17) Rews, 'Miss you in the dark'
16) Daughter, 'Burn It Down'
15) Beth Ditto, 'Savoir Faire'
14) Wolf Alice, 'Beautifully Unconventional'
13) Bipolar Sunshine, 'The Scientist'
12) Noga Erez, 'Noisy'
11) Georgia, 'Feel It'
10) Honeyblood, 'Sea Hearts'
9) Lorde, 'Liability'
8) Wild Ones, 'Parathesia'
7) Helen McCookerybook, 'Big Brother'
6) XX, 'Replica'
5) Overcoats, 'Nighttime Hunger'
4) Gothic Tropic, 'Stronger'
3) Natasha Kmeto, 'Pour Down'
2) St Vincent, 'Los Ageless'
1) Miya Folick, 'God Is A Woman'

Natasha Kmeto-"Free For Tonight"- Live at Bunk Bar 2, 10, 2017

A truly absorbing performance of 'Free For Tonight', which was the slightly more gritty/somber B Side to the euphoric 'Pour Down'.

Natasha Kmeto - Inevitable (Live on KEXP)

This is Natasha Kmeto performing the brooding 'Inevitable' on KEXP back in 2015. You can watch her full KEXP set online. For the full live experience, you can also watch Natasha's full set from Bunk Bar back in February 2017. 

Fantasy Festival #7: The Fiercely Futuristic Festival - Lineup

Noga Erez: Noga Erez is a 27 year old new artist from Tel Aviv. She makes sometimes playful, sometimes dark, always danceable to electro pop in the inventive and glitchy vein. Erez has been compared to both MIA and FKA Twigs and her debut album, Off The Radar, is out now. She will be touring the UK in October and will also be playing the Pitchfork Avant Garde Festival in Paris at the end of October.  

Natasha Kmeto: Natasha Kmeto is a producer and vocalist who composes electronic music in Portland, Oregan. Often epic in her emotional scope, she creates shimmering dance music and pared down brooding electro soul. She will be appearing at Le Guess Who? in Utrecht in November. 

Honeyblood: Honeyblood are a guitar rock duo from Glasgow who create frantically catchy songs that seem destined to be teenage anthems. They released their second album, Babes Never Die, back in May, but are not currently touring.

Courtney Barnett: Courtney Barnett is a singer/songwriter from Melbourne. Her 2015 album Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit, included the indie fave 'No one really cares if you don't go to the party', and continued to excite critics and music lovers already inspired by the laid back quirky guitar rock of the single 'History Eraser'. She will be touring the US in the autumn. 

Zola Jesus: Zola Jesus is the stage name of Nika Roza Danilova, an industrial/electronic artist from Madison, Wisconsin. Trained as an opera singer, she was inspired to create her own music by artists such as Throbbing Gristle, Dead Kennedys and Diamonda Galas. She has released five albums, and her sixth album, Okovi, will be released in September. She is currently touring the US and Canada, but will be touring Europe, including the UK, in October and November.

Sleater-Kinney: Corin Tucker. Carrie Brownstein. Janet Weiss. Sleater-Kinney formed in the mid 1990s in Olympia, Washington, became the standard bearers for the later waves of Riot Grrrl, and then went on to became a very good, very credible rock band. After eleven years of writing, recording and touring, they went on a ten year hiatus before returning with the critically acclaimed and fan adored No Cities To Love album in 2015. Their live album, Live in Paris was released in January. They will be playing the Music Tastes Good Festival in Long Beach, California, in September. 

Grimes: Grimes is a Canadian producer, composer, singer and engineer of astonishing and ethereal electronic music. She grew up in Vancouver and her second album, Visions (2012), and third album, Art Angels (2015), were both critically acclaimed. She is not currently touring.

Beth Ditto: Arkansas singer Beth Ditto, formerly of electro punk band Gossip, is now a solo act. Her bluesy, punk rock Etta James voice has been heard recently on the anthemic and brooding southern rock blues single 'Fire', and her debut solo album, Fake Sugar, is out now. She is touring Europe, including the UK, throughout September and October. 

Natasha Kmeto - Pour Down (official video)

Because after the events of the past few weeks, and the last twenty four hours, I feel a real sense of catharsis and a need to dance.

Thank you to Elmo, Lord Buckethead and Mr Fishfinger for giving me moments of hilarity in the last twenty four hours.