{"id":9128,"date":"2015-11-18T06:32:50","date_gmt":"2015-11-18T09:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/culturedarm.com\/?p=9128"},"modified":"2015-11-18T06:34:48","modified_gmt":"2015-11-18T09:34:48","slug":"culturedarms-songs-of-the-month-october-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culturedarm.com\/staging\/5793\/culturedarms-songs-of-the-month-october-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Culturedarm’s Songs of the Month (October 2015)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kelela<\/a><\/p>\n

Kelela – ‘Rewind’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kelela\u00a0first came to attention in 2012 as the featured vocalist\u00a0on Teengirl Fantasy’s ‘EFX’, a lilting shanty with scuttering percussion from the duo’s second album Tracer<\/em>. The following year she\u00a0released her debut\u00a0mixtape\u00a0Cut 4 Me<\/em>, which showcased the breadth of her\u00a0R&B stylings\u00a0over clanging percussion courtesy\u00a0of the LA-based label Fade To Mind and their London counterparts Night Slugs.\u00a0Kingdom\u00a0and Nguzunguzu were prominent figures, as Kelela’s soulful voice sometimes swirled in the mix of tracks but more often hung back and stretched out syllables, pushing through the array of textures to convey a palpable tension.<\/p>\n

Cut 4 Me<\/em> won widespread acclaim, and from Kelela’s contemporaries as well as end-of-year publications: Bj\u00f6rk posted on Instagram calling a performance by Kelela ‘one of my all time favourites… raw and graceful’<\/a>,\u00a0while Solange Knowles included two Kelela songs on her compilation album\u00a0Saint Heron<\/em>.\u00a0In the\u00a0couple of years since\u00a0Cut 4 Me<\/em>, Kelela has collaborated with Kindness, Le1f, Tink<\/a>, and\u00a0DJ Dahi<\/a>, while a deluxe edition of the mixtape emerged\u00a0in April.<\/p>\n

Recently signed to Warp, Kelela’s excellent\u00a0new EP Hallucinogen<\/em> came out on 9 October. Its six tracks again see her working with Kingdom, Nguzunguzu, and DJ Dahi, while\u00a0Arca, who co-produced much of Bj\u00f6rk’s Vulnicura<\/em><\/a>, contributes to\u00a0the opener ‘A Message’. ‘Rewind’ is Hallucinogen<\/em>‘s lead single, a movement of the sleek neon-lit nighttime.<\/p>\n