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From London
Recommended if you like All Saints, Frou Frou, Nelly Furtado
Up next EP out now; on tour with After in May
The first time I heard Gianna’s Shadow of a Bird, I was instantly transported to a place that smelled of Impulse body spray. It is a track that has perfectly nailed the polished boho-pop of early 00s Nelly Furtado, All Saints and Corinne Bailey Rae – the sort that features arpeggiated acoustic guitar, vaguely trip-hop beats and a gently distinctive voice swooping through them.
Other clear influences on the 23-year-old Camdenite’s debut EP Behind the Wings are the cinematic sweep of Everything But the Girl and the rave-adjacent Ray of Light-era Madonna, but also Gianna’s own childhood steeped in Albanian television and folk songs. When she started writing songs to combat the boredom of lockdown, she wrote them in Albanian over beats she found on YouTube. You hear tiny hints of that Balkan aesthetic in her new music, though Shadow of a Bird was inspired by an experience dozing in her parents’ native Kosovo. What she thought was a brick falling on her turned out to be a hummingbird flitting by. Turning that split-second into a Pure Shores-esque meditation on reality distortion is quite the move.
It feels wrong to describe music that has roots so deep in Y2K nostalgia as “fresh”, but Gianna’s songs are also as bright and effervescent as the era’s face-wash ads. She is not the only artist inspired by that period, of course – Addison Rae and Erika de Casier have been harking back to it of late – but she makes another convincing argument that coffee-shop pop is ripe for reassessment. Kate Solomon
This week’s best new tracks
Nia Archives – Danger
A playground chant acronym runs through the UK junglist’s return – “G is the spot, E is what we drop” etc – which swerves between a rushing chorus and verses worthy of second-album Sugababes: high praise.
deBasement – Aftermarket Bass (ft Nikki Nair)
Special Interest’s Alli Logout and DJ Margo XS ply the sort of fuzzed-out, thumbscrew-turned dancefloor bass and commanding icy vocal – “don’t stop, make the chocolate shake” – that demands total submission.
Downtown Boys – No Me Jodas
The Rhode Island punks return for their first album since 2017, expanding their spit-and-sawdust squall with enveloping clouds of doom. Suits them.
Brennan Wedl and Waxahatchee – Six O’Clock News
Katie Crutchfield and Minnesota-raised Wedl – a songwriter who splits the difference between Lucinda Williams and Sheryl Crow – beautifully essay Kathleen Edwards’ 2002 lament to outlaw love.
Empress Of – Dream House
“Up in the mountain just how you remember / I wanna build you a dream house,” Lorely Rodriguez sings to sweet, shuffling R&B – a literal offering to her family, whose home burned down in the Altadena fires.
Lee “Scratch” Perry and Mouse on Mars – Rockcurry
Many people have claimed Lee “Scratch” Perry’s “last” recordings, but his true final sessions were with this German electronic duo: Perry remains cool as ever amid their synth-winking, caper-worthy music.
Khun Narin Electric Phin Band – Poet Wong Pt 1 (เปิดวง ตอน 1)
Hailing from remote northern Thailand, this marching band are by turns serene, intricate, psychedelic and pulverising on this first taste of a record produced by Tommy Brenneck (Amy Winehouse, Charles Bradley).
Laura Snapes
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