West London’s Elliott Power sounds like he’s spent his whole life listening to some of the classic late 80's - mid 90's British soul and trip hop records. The whispered menacing vocal on Sink / Swim instantly harks back to Tricky’s 1995 album Maxinquaye, whilst the brooding but bouncy rhythms recall Soul II Soul or Massive Attack. But this isn’t just full on imitation. It may take reference, but it’s still fresh and intriguing enough to warrant more than just one cursory play.
Massive Attack’s influence seems to be fertilising a rich seam of new acts in the UK at the moment. We’ve mentioned the Bristol trip-hop gods in relation to both Moko and London Grammar in recent posts and now we’re adding Elliott Power to that collection. Of course Sink / Swim might just be a one off. Maybe next Power will release a eurodisco cover version of Run to the Hills by Iron Maiden and stun us all. OK, if we were a bookmaker we’d give very high odds on that, but anything is possible…
Sink/Swim is Power’s first official track to be put up on line and we understand that he's got a debut single coming up soon on Marathon Artists (Jagwar Ma, Jamie Isaac, Childhood). Let’s keep an ear and eye on this seemingly publicity shy dude (the photo above doesn’t really give much away does it?), .
Elliott Power - Sink / Swim
No comments:
Post a Comment