Ben Khan has been quietly collecting praise from tastemakers across the music scene. The highly talented, multi-instrumentalist has just released the visuals for ‘Ruby’, his favourite track of the recent self-entitled album, out now via Dirty Hit.
Directed and produced entirely by Khan himself, the visuals perfectly marry the track’s synthetic and futuristic themes with his undemanding vocals, silently driven by anger and sadness.
A year ago, he travelled to Kashmir, the home of his father (who works in textiles, and whose floral art inspired some of the album’s artwork), “and I just walked around and took sounds on my daily rituals, and tried to put that in there somehow, so it felt like a journey through places.” The result, he hopes, is a work of “magical realism.”
Sounds like: Leo Kalyan, Twin Shadow, Jai Paul, JUNGLE, Disclosure, Prince, Blood Orange, Harts, Oyinda, Shy Girls
Big news. Ben Khan returns with the announcement of his debut album (hurrah!) and a self-directed dystopian video for spine-tingling new single ‘2000 Angels’.
The album – set for release in the summer – was produced alongside Flood (PJHarvey, DepecheMode, Nine Inch Nails) and mixed by Spike Stent (Björk, Frank Ocean), with Ben playing every instrument on the record.
Always with a creative hands-on approach, Ben also plans to launch his new interactive website, The Foundation, which offers an insight into the richness and depth of the album’s story.
Sounds like: Leo Kalyan, Twin Shadow, Jai Paul, JUNGLE, Disclosure, Prince, Blood Orange, Harts, Oyinda, Shy Girls
OTR manages to get the chilled but tense vibe just right with his latest single, ‘Close’, which includes the soulful vocals by Kai Straw.
The 25-year old aerospace engineer-turned-producer uses his mathematical mind as a key component when it comes to his music, producing off-kilter melodies and electronic sounds.
Sounds like: Hotel Garuda, Gryffin, ODESZA, Petit Biscuit, Porter Robinson
NAVA is the highly energetic project of Persian songwriter Nava Golchini and three other Italian musicians. Visually, NAVA is a mix of horror and fashion inspired by the works of visionary designer Gareth Pugh.
The debut single ‘Ritual’ gives us a glimpse into the NAVA world – full of electro arrangements, tribal instruments and dark metropolitan landscapes.
It could be 2014 again, and boy it feels good! During your visit, expect luscious vocals, addictive synth drops and and nu-disco undertone. All this, courtesy of Betablock3r and the new single ‘Make You Happy’.
It is the first single off their debut EP Monolith, out now.
It wouldn’t be a decent weekly gems feature without some pop in there. This week Tanners is the chosen one.
Tanners is the moniker of New York City-based songwriter and producer Tanner Peterson. Leading the way for women in creative music tech, Tanners has also spoken at TEDxTeen.
Inspired by her childhood love for the beach, ‘Holy Water’ celebrates the beauty and electricity born from allowing yourself to be completely vulnerable and enveloped by the ocean. “It’s a thank you song to the ocean for teaching me to embrace vulnerability,” Tanners says of the track.
Meet emerging alt-pop trio Young Sierra, who were born from a school friendship, and bonded “over a shared love of low bit-rate Drake mp3s, eighties pop and hot-sauce”.
They have the kind of frantic energy of ArcadeFire and the cheeky nature of The1975. Naughty.
Sounds like: Arcade Fire, Electric Youth, The 1975, Night Panther, Bad Sounds
Another well trained, and self-taught musician. This time it is CaitlynScarlett.
Caitlyn moved to London at age 17 to pursue her dream of music, and cites influences from the likes of M.I.A and Kate Bush to Bob Dylan and GwenStefani.
Her emotive, downbeat pop single, ‘Rust’, produced by Jack Gourlay (TomOdell, JackGarrett), sung in Caitlyn’s signature soulful style, tells a haunting and raw story about love.
“Writing Rust was therapy for me. It’s about that very sad point that some relationships reach, where both people grow in a separate direction and things become beyond repair. Especially if there’s been a betrayal of trust. I’m a hopeless romantic so when my first relationship ended, it shattered a lot of my idillic beliefs about love and how the story of my life was going to look. I’ve spent so much time mentally pacing down memory lane, at times it’s felt like my address.”
Sounds like: Xan Young, Folly Rae, Tom Odell, Jack Garrett, Leo Kalyan
London native, Leo Kalyan, releases the video for ‘Daydream’; a stunning and an emotive track with an equally as mesmerising video.
The hypnotic stock motion visual was animated by Ruth Barrett and directed by Hazlett-Beard. It once again showcases Kalyan’s boundless ability to draw upon ‘close to the bone’ emotions and wrap them perfectly in an infectious soulful R&B pop sheen.
Speaking of the video Kalyan, described how “For the “Daydream” video, I wanted to bring my collage artworks to life. I design all my own song artwork so the colours and textures that I use are chosen to represent how the song feels to me. For this video, I wanted to take it a step further by making it move. Much like my last video there isn’t a specific storyline to follow. It’s more about a mood, a vibe, and an aesthetic. It’s about momentarily letting your mind wander into a different, slightly surreal world – just like a daydream.”
Watch below.
Leo’s four-track EP, ‘Silver Linings’, has been produced by friend and frequent collaborator XO and is out now.
There is a new kid joining the electro-soul world, and he’s one that we are particularly excited about.
Xan Young, with similarities to Ben Khan, releases his debut track ‘Passion’. It is built on quivering synths and obscure percussion…and the simplicity is beautiful.
We expect his debut record, ‘The Flood’, to be released in August via Astro Nautico.
Sounds like: Ben Khan, Years & Years, Leo Kalyan, Twin Shadow, Jai Paul, JUNGLE, Disclosure, Prince, Blood Orange, Harts, Oyinda, Shy Girls, Harriet
A year a go today, we wrote about rising Brit, Ben Khan.
Flash forward one year and hot on the footsteps of Ben’s recent release of ‘1000’, is his latest victory, ‘Zenith’.
A powerful three minute track full of claustrophobic sci-fi blues, wounded guitar squiggles, crunchy synths and a soulful cascading chorus hook.
Ben recently announced his first headline live dates in the UK and Europe with most of the shows quickly selling out. This is one artist in demand.
His new EP follows last years successful and acclaimed debut ‘1992 EP’ which introduced Ben’s inventive brand of swampy electronic R&B and funk, mangled blues soul, and icy hip-hop beats.
Sounds like: Leo Kalyan, Twin Shadow, Jai Paul, JUNGLE, Disclosure, Prince, Blood Orange, Harts, Oyinda, Shy Girls
