October
October 7th: Nilüfer Yanya – ‘Keep On Calling’
If there’s a better way of coming across stunning talent than in support of an act you adore, I’m yet to find it. For Will Joseph Cook’s show at Kentish Town’s Boston Music Room, the artist in question was Nilüfer Yanya, who rarely looked away from the frets of her baby blue guitar as she sparsely strummed with a dreamy vocal intonation, particularly through her opener, a cover of Pixies’ ‘Hey.’ Her original songs (including subsequent debut releases ‘Small Crimes’ and ‘Keep On Calling’) also carried that edge of supple jazz, remaining minimal instrumentally as her rounded voice carved slowly through songs with hints of betrayal and anguish. Aside from moments where her accompanist laid down her saxophone to take the microphone for questionable harmonies, the result was serenely understated, and the recorded renditions pleasingly do the show much justice.
October 14th: Two Door Cinema Club – Gameshow
It seems quite tricky to write about Two Door Cinema Club’s third album without just quoting ‘Eat That Up, It’s Good For You,’ Tourist History‘s closer.
October 21st: Clean Bandit feat. Sean Paul & Anne-Marie – ‘Rockabye’
“DAILY STRUGGLE.”
October 28th: RAY BLK – Durt
You can’t spell RAY BLK without R&B, and Durt‘s admirable narrative approach has put her firmly to the forefront of that particular British movement. A seven-track “mini album” that came not long after her rare performance as an unsigned artist on Later…With Jools Holland, its lingering moments are shadowed perfectly by Stormzy being introspective (‘My Hood’), SG Lewis being buttery and comforting (‘Chill Out’), and Wretch 32 being…well, Wretch 32 (‘Gone’).
