George Maple - Vacant Space

As we’ve suggested before, if Australian singer George Maple’s music career doesn’t work out we think she has the perfect made up name to head up a waffle / cake and sweet manufacturing company. Mr Kipling your time is up. 

Mind you we can’t imagine the roles being swapped with Mr Kipling singing “It’s better with the lights off, it’s better when you slow down, it’s better when I stop thinking about this. Maybe I’ll put my hair up, maybe I’ll close my eyes, maybe we can find some mutual ground,” as the opening lines to a tune before things start pumping rhythmically. Then the big question arises.  Are you faking it like her? Yes, the subject may be sex, but the reality is that this is a desperately sad piece of music about two people who are no longer suited to each other. Who said that dance tunes were all about partying and putting your hands in the air? There is another side.

Vacant Space is taken from an EP of the same name due out on Future Classic on 1st Dec. According to George’s Facebook Flume helped out with the beats on this one. There's a troubled beauty in the emptiness of Vacant Space.

George Maple - Vacant Space

Snakehips (Featuring George Maple) - On & On

Jess Higgs, better known as George Maple follows up the rather seductive twosome of Fixed and Uphill (featured here) with a new collaboration with North London producer Snakehips. The song’s blissed out after-club electronic r’n’b atmosphere and soulful vocal delivery bring an immediate comparison with Jessie Ware but with the sound of an old school console game blasting away giving it a slightly trippy electronic feel. It’s as if Snakehips has been soaking up sun-drenched good times down on the beach and the seaside attractions then taken them home and fingered them into his laptop. Give it six months and it will probably be cropping up on all those horrendous chill out compilation CD’s they sell in garages and we’ll be sick of it, but let’s just enjoy the ride for this moment and not worry about the future. This billowing beauty sounds fabulous.

Snakehips featuring George Maple - On & On

George Maple - New Waves

The name George Maple doesn’t really sound like it was made for a pop star does it? A waffle or sweet manufacturer perhaps, or maybe even a supplier of innovative kitchen gadgets, but not a rather cool Australian vocalist who has recently moved to the UK.

Of course George Maple isn’t the singer’s real name, in reality she’s Jess Higgs and you may have stumbled across her voice on the discotastic Flight Facilities song Foreign Language. Maple’s slinky tones can also be found on a collaborative effort with fellow Australian Flume and a song called Bring You Down. A third opportunity for giving her voice some ear love came on a song called Uphill, her debut solo single released last year.

However, for the uninitiated this is Maple’s first appearance on Breaking More Waves and we’re streaming her forthcoming single Fixed which is released through Tuluum Records on April 15 as well as the video for Uphill. Taking the same reference points as Jessie Ware (in fact every time we hear Uphill we can’t really believe that it isn’t a new Jessie Ware track) Maple’s sound takes a light minimalist touch allowing the beats and vocals to do much of the work, even if that work is relatively restrained. It’s very of the moment, very late night seductive and very non-kitchen gadgety. There you are George, use that one on your future press releases. “Very non-kitchen gadgety – Breaking More Waves.” 

George Maple - Fixed

George Maple - Uphill (Video)