Now we’re done with Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch 2016 list, (just before we get the ubiquitous BBC Sound of list tomorrow and the Blog Sound of 2016 next Thursday) we can for a moment pause and reflect on the new track from Claudia Kane, which popped up on a few blogs and websites last week whilst we were crystal ball gazing. “None of my songs are about love, because I’ve never been in love,” says Claudia. Is that why we see her in the picture above sitting on her own at a table, with a couple of glasses? Maybe she’s readying herself for a date? Maybe it's a speed dating session? Maybe she’ll find love there and then when her head’s all a flutter with romance she'll write a sickeningly cheesy ballad and find fame and fortune with it? It seems to work for Adele. Until that time, we’ll have this non-love song, from her new EP, which has been a long time coming. So long in fact that this time last year we were naming her as one we had considered for our Ones to Watch 2015 list (see here). Good things come to those who wait though and The Silence is very good, taking flight with adrenalized trip-hop beats and a spacious filmic backdrop of sound to create something vast within the context of a pop song. As Depeche Mode might say, enjoy The Silence. Claudia Kane - The Silence
Since we introduced Claudia Kane last August there’s been diddly squat in terms of new material until now. Not that Residents of Darkness is 100% out of the wrapping new – we featured the original video back in that previous post when we described the song as ‘unearthly night-rave’ and suggested it was a bit like Lana Del Rey going clubbing and popping pills in hotpants, which would make a change from that red dress she keeps taking on and off in the lyrics of her songs. No red dress for Claudia though, we imagine if she was wearing a dress it would be black, maybe with the odd silver sequin. This new humping, pumping dark disco video features plenty of twitching shoulders from Claudia’s dancers and lots of atmospheric backlighting. The song itself presses the better-than-decent-pop-that-you-could-dance-to ‘in da club’ button with some firmness. It’s one of those tunes that screams 'dance remix frenzy coming soon', although right now there only seems to be the one (the sharp fist pumping T.O remix) which we’re streaming below, which for some reason reminds of something from Depeche Mode’s Black Celebration LP given a modern reworking. See what you think and give it a play, pushing its figures up from the woeful 5 plays it has on Soundcloud right now. Claudia Kane - Residents of Darkness (Video)
For those (like us) who like their pop music with a sense of swelling cinematic drama then Claudia Kane (no relation to Miles as far as we know) is a name you should bookmark right now. Darling Is Not My Name (streaming below) is a fine introduction to this London based artist, taking as its sonic reference points Massive Attack, James Bond themes and the piano on Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells to create a haunting and powerful song. On the basis of this one give her a couple of years and we can imagine she’ll be taking centre stage at the Royal Albert Hall. Add to that two other high quality tunes on her Soundcloud, the unearthly night-rave of Residents of Darkness (the self-edited video of which you can see below) which reminds us a little of Lana Del Rey going clubbing and popping pills in hotpants (not that we’re in any way suggesting that Lana would be ‘in da club’ popping pills of course, she’s probably too busy putting on and taking off that red dress she’s always singing about) and the menacing Hungry and what we have in Claudia Kane is a singer who doesn’t just have potential, but sounds like she’s already fully realised it. Claudia Kane - Darling Is Not My Name
