Journalists love inventing new genres don’t they? And even when a style of music is a repeat or influenced by something that has gone before that doesn’t stop them either. Just put the word new (or nu for hipster spelling points) in front of something and voila, we’re in business. New wave, new rave we’ve even had the new wave of new wave. In fact we’re rather surprised that nobody has coined the term new minimalism, because when we look back at this decade and try to define what it sounded like, away from the over produced maximalism of homogenous vocoder club and r’nb influenced pop that dominates much of the UK charts these days, we’ll probably remember the likes of James Blake, The XX, Lorde and London Grammar as the new minimalists, who brought very little to the kitchen table (in a good way) allowing their music to breathe through stripping the songs back to the essentials.
So here’s a newcomer to that pot of new minimalism. Expectations by Miami’s Brika is a totally of the moment song; there’s belching pulses, drips of echoing electronics and sensual soulful vocals that sound like they could sing their way to ear-orgasm whatever style she chose to sing in. It’s an exquisitely well-mannered piece; nothing sounds out of place and certainly there’s no over-cooking in terms of its production. With its vocal call to take things slow, the lyrics suit its downtempo naked style perfectly. Remarkably all this is from a woman whose biggest influence is Coldplay!
Brika - Expectations
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