Monday, May 19, 2014

Music Monday: Kate Tempest

Brockley-born Kate Tempest has been around for a while - first mentioned on Transpontine back in 2008 when she was performing as Excentral Tempest. But in the last year or two she's made a real breakthrough, including winning the Ted Hughes poetry prize last year for her 'Brand New Ancients' epic performance poem.

She's got a new album out today on Big Dada Recordings, recorded with producer Dan Carey at his Streatham studio: 'Everybody Down is something like a “novel rhyme” – twelve ‘chapters’ telling one long, complex story... Tempest takes the tropes of the hip hop story – drugs, money, gangsters – and brings them to life in a whole new way, a London way, but also a completely personal way, where she inhabits the different characters and shows the boredom and fear in their lives rather than some faked glamour, shows more than anything their need for love'.

The official launch is at Corsica Studios at the Elephant and Castle tomorrow night, but she previewed it last Tuesday at the Birds Nest in Deptford.

Kate at the Birds Nest last week - photo by @amybodiam
New single from the album, the Beigeness, is out now:



Also check out this in-depth interview from last year on Australian radio show Late Night Live with Phillip Adams:


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