Tei Shi - 'Bassically' | Dot To Dot Festival 2015.

The whole Tei Shi set from Dot To Dot festival isn't available on YouTube, alas. But you can watch her performing 'Goodbye' live from home here, and watch her full 2017 session for Paste Studios here.

Fantasy Festival number 18: The Lineup

otta: Finnish/British musician otta's debut EP was released earlier this year. Including as it did the broodingly minimalistic 'Near Enough A Woman', it's fair to say that this young songwriter has created a stir amongst those with an interest in slightly jazz influenced understated songwriting. You can find out more on otta's Bandcamp.

Jess Williamson: Texas born, LA dwelling singer/songwriter Jess Williamson is rooted in country but she also inhabits a wild, sweeping soundscape that goes beyond Americana. You imagine prairie winds but you can also sense speakeasy's and dark and seedy LA streets. You can find out more here.

Ailibhe Reddy: Irish singer/songwriter Ailibe Reddy could perhaps be described as urban folk. Her songs have a tradition of folk songwriting behind them, but her concerns are of the urban life: Tube trains, shame, relationships. There is noise and grit in the mix, and she is certainly a songwriter for our times. You can find out more here.

Tancred: Jess Abbot's fourth album as Tancred, Nightstand, was released in 2018. In equal measure pared down and intimate confessional and brash guitar led indie rock swagger, it deserved a greater degree of success than it had. Those of a certain age might think of early Liz Phair or, more likely, Mary Lou Lord, but Abbot is her own woman and transcends all comparisons with the quality of her voice and her songwriting. You can find out more here.

The Coathangers: The garage rock band from Atlanta, Georgia make catchy, thrashy, occasionally sixties girl group esque songs that will remind you of both the Shondells and the Rondelles, as well as - inevitably - the Girls In The Garage series. You can find out more here.

Tei Shi: Colombian-Canadian singer, songwriter and producer Valerie Teicher Barbosa makes harmony based, R&B flavoured indie pop, with a slyly subversive edge. You can find out more here.

Harkin: Katie Harkin began her musical career in Leeds as one half of teenage indie punk band Sky Larkin. Since then she's collaborated with members of Wye Oak and Wild Beasts and become a member of the Sleater-Kinney touring band. Her debut self titled album was released in early 2020 and was a series of crisp, hook based songs in the indie rock tradition. She will be back to promote the album, it is to be expected, in 2021. In the meantime, you can find her on Insta.

Nadine Shah: South Tyneside singer, songwriter and musician Nadine Shah has just released her fourth album, Kitchen Sink, a series of highly timely observational vignettes taken from a life where she has often felt like an outsider. All her rage, all her anger, all her talent for observing and crafting songs that pierce modern mores like arrows, comes out in a series of unforgiving bluesy rock anthems. She is astonishingly good live, and you can find out more here.

Imogen Heap: Singer, songwriter, producer and sound engineer Imogen Heap is as known for her inventive use of technology (her musical gloves being one example) as for her music itself. To see her  live is to experience music technology development in action, but - both as a member of Frou-Frou and in a solo capacity - she has also written some damn good left of centre pop tunes. You can find out more here, and watch her weekly livestreams here.

St Vincent: Singer, songwriter and producer Annie Clark has been making music as St Vincent since 2006. Hers has been a low key rise, not indicative of superstardom, but well respected and highly influential, garnering respect and headliner status. Each of her albums has a distinct musical identity and hinterland of its own, with 2017's Masseduction having a sexy, slinky quality to it that veered from the unbearably sad to the joyously hedonistic. Hers is a big, complex sound, a sort of baroque art pop, never the same, but always unmistakably her. You can find out more here.

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue #4

Christmas tree in shop, Levenshulme, from bus window in rush hour traffic

While the sound on the clip isn't fantastic, todays video does show the goddess like Eartha Kitt in playful mood, performing the classic 'Santa Baby'. Kitt was, of course, about much more than this, and a song like 'Lazy Afternoon' shows off her vocal skills to a greater extent, but that doesn't detract from her performance here, which is perfect.

There's a vague aural unease and discordance in a lot of Tei Shi's work that is evident in her August release 'See Me'. Whereas February's 'Bassically' was slinky and slightly menacing, there's a gentle, pastoral quality to 'See Me' that is just as unsettling, just in a different way.

The Mediaeval Baebes have always been a curious ensemble, not really a choir, not really a band, not really classical, not really folk... 'Sour Grove', which is taken from 2007's The Rose, captures well where they were as an ensemble at that point, combining old and new elements to create a very distinctive and arresting take on an old song.

Todays post concludes with the excellent Laura Groves, aka Blue Roses, and 'First Frost Night', Groves was one of a number of Laura's making folk music in the UK in 2009, and the self titled Blue Roses album is still an excellent listen. It would be great if she made another album.

Photo of Christmas tree in shop, Levenshulme, from bus window in rush hour traffic, by Cazz Blase. Copyright Cazz Blase, all rights reserved.