Katy B - On A Mission (4 April 2011) - hype, anticipation &c

i love that she's spent the past few days bigging up teedra moses on twitter - seen so many retweets of people just discovering teedra b/c of katy <3

oh no i think she did it on some radio show - it's teedra who's been retweeting everything lol

well she brought up teedra in this interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqk7VtUfofg

and now she's repping her on the radio as well? god i love this woman

it's frustrating that british dance music has been written about in such a tediously blokey way for the past decade plus, given that its form is so conducive to this

I think British dance music, post-92 at least, has *always* been written about in a tediously blokey way - female vocalists appear all over the place but they're usually a front for the producers even when they make the whole song (Exhibit A being Shara Nelson on Unfinished Sympathy obviously). 2-step is a bit of an outlier in that respect but even that threw up fewer durable pop stars than one would expect.

Lex I really liked your FACT review of the album - struck the right tone between setting Katy up as standing for a concept in dance/pop music and but also letting her just stand for and as herself

cosign, really good review lex (just got the FACT email newsletter, read it, thought "oh cool great review!" then noticed yr name at the botton after i'd read the entire thing-- go figure!)

bottom* obv

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y12kbjyqJ0M

bangin' band behind her there

lol

Random Thoughts:

a-*This album is like a rundown of every dance electronic genre of the past decade or so.

God she has a sexy voice. Can I have a crush on a girl even though I'm gay? (thinks for a second) Yeah sure why not?

She really does play hard to get. She never sings a song on what specifics traits she likes in a guy. She keeps that information to herself. Shes both warm and aloof at the same time.

"Why You Always Here?" is the best fuck off song I've heard since the late 90s Scrub/Bills Bills Bills era.

Why the fuck Louder isn't on this album?

Please don't come to the USA and go r&b. That's how Craig David ruined himself.

She never sings a song on what specifics traits she likes in a guy

ha, until "easy please me" when she tells you all of them!

def one of those albums that gets even better w/repeated listens - seriously impressed by it

vg interview - http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/mar/29/katy-b?CMP=twt_gu

I wanted to like this more than I do, but I've only listened through one time. It leans a little "clubby" for my usual tastes, but I'm willing to give it a fair shake.

def one of those albums that gets even better w/repeated listens - seriously impressed by it

In that case, wow, because I'm on my first play and I already think it's going to rival PJ Harvey for my album of the year. This feels like the big overground moment British dance music's been leading up to for years and I'm glad it's come in the form of such a likeable pop star. Seems such an obvious blueprint that I can't believe UK vocalists haven't been making albums like this for years.

Aside from the ones I'd already heard last year, "Movement" is the only track that's jumping out at me. I need to give this some more listens though. Given my usual listening habits, it's probably more of a surprise I like any of this. (Also, I've kind of shifted back to mostly listening to Latin music at the moment.)

no issues with this album whatsoever, it's ace. egg & chips on fine china.

no boy is on a level believe me

(aoty)

'Go Away' is the real stunner for me so far.

pardon my phallocentrism for saying so but from the origin seed of his and hers 'good life' cover geeneus has done just a beautifully well-judged job here - articulating katy's early sugababesness through a low-key nostalgic chart house prism is as rewarding on a dreary tuesday in the office as it is in evening glamour.

(course, it still would have been a nice evocative touch to have had the bassier, more propulsive og 'lights on' on the single as a club mix. he was wise to change it in the first place though.)

btw lex fwiw that is your best ever rvw imo

i was so certain you'd go overboard on the €om£dy mi$andry too but no!

also

female vocalists appear all over the place but they're usually a front for the producers even when they make the whole song (Exhibit A being Shara Nelson on Unfinished Sympathy obviously). 2-step is a bit of an outlier in that respect but even that threw up fewer durable pop stars than one would expect.

― Matt DC, Monday, 21 March 2011 13:00 (1 week ago) Bookmark

there is something about this mode of things i think is very fruitful and feel quite protective of but find very hard to put across successfully. certainly i don't believe it to automatically evidence any paternalistic despotism or whatever; in some mysterious way even it seems almost less cynical than the american model sometimes.

early sugababesness yes! i did think that but iirc it was 3am at the time and i second-guessed myself by thinking it was just her gingerness leading me on.

(and thanks!)

Yeah I have mixed feelings about the whole vocalist vs star-in-own-right thing. I think both can work. Katy B's obv got the goods to go down the second route but if she hadn't that wouldn't have made "As I" or "Tell Me" any lesser than they are.

There's a distinction here b/w the "Unfinished Sympathy" model (Shara loses out because of the excess of auteurism attributed to Massive Attack) and the "Flowers" model (people love the tune without necessarily drawing any conclusions about Sunship or Sweet Female Attitude).

It's relevant that 90% of 2-step's great vocal tunes were remixes: i.e. the creators of the original become manufacturers of source material rather than the object of focus.

I guess Katy's work prior to now kind of straddled the two models in that her big tunes were both "faceless" club hits (with great vocals obv) but attached to producers with at least some cred. Certainly it'd be shitty if people were all like wow Geneeus, wow Zinc, wow Benga.

I'm going to listen to this on Spotify now. Perfect Stranger I loved initially, but it didn't endure.

And curses, it's not there.

Yeah I have mixed feelings about the whole vocalist vs star-in-own-right thing. I think both can work. Katy B's obv got the goods to go down the second route but if she hadn't that wouldn't have made "As I" or "Tell Me" any lesser than they are.

yeah, i'm not saying tracks are any lesser if their singer is just an anonymous "ft." forever - it's about potential, even when katy b was a faceless vocalist you could hear on "tell me" and "as i" that she could be a viable artist in her own right (and the same is true with most of the random singers who pop up on uk dance records, who already contribute a ton of their own artistry to those songs)

the bassier, more propulsive og 'lights on'

i think i never heard this? are there...mp3s of this in existence?

is it worth my even bothering to see if the radio rip's still up? that's all there is of it. (and it's not even massively different at all, just... slanted differently.)

not every singer is a katy b it must be said. with the right help some admittedly could in a perfect or even fairer world be more than what they get now; otoh sometimes in america you have vast military-industrial complexes heaving and churning every gear to force a personality onto a nice voice and pretty face.

ok the rip isnt up anyway, and i don't have access to it. if someone else could oblige?

early sugababesness yes! i did think that but iirc it was 3am at the time and i second-guessed myself by thinking it was just her gingerness leading me on.

― lex pretend, Thursday, 31 March 2011 00:42 (37 minutes ago)

haha besides the general 'tude and siobhan looks, every time 'movement' comes on it think it's gonna be 'overload'. crafty fuckers!

otoh sometimes in america you have vast military-industrial complexes heaving and churning every gear to force a personality onto a nice voice and pretty face.

yup - you can never really tell whether someone's a viable solo artist until they try it. but i appreciate the US model of trying it! and wish more effort was put into UK singers - whether into framing their voices/songs in the best way, like geeneus has done here, or just straight-up logistical industry support.

just got a PR email about a new ny single featuring giggs, gonna listen tomorrow but hopefully things are kicking off for her finally?

Yeah lex I agree with what you're saying, I was responding more to matt's comments.

Yeah I have mixed feelings about the whole vocalist vs star-in-own-right thing. I think both can work. Katy B's obv got the goods to go down the second route but if she hadn't that wouldn't have made "As I" or "Tell Me" any lesser than they are.

There's a distinction here b/w the "Unfinished Sympathy" model (Shara loses out because of the excess of auteurism attributed to Massive Attack) and the "Flowers" model (people love the tune without necessarily drawing any conclusions about Sunship or Sweet Female Attitude).

Yeah I was being a bit careful to separate the audience from the way the music is written about. It's partly because dance audiences don't much care whether or not something is faceless, even when there's a face attached. But the fact we're even having this conversation demonstrates that female vocalists (and maybe dance vocalists in general) have been a bit hard done by over the years, whereas no one worries about this distinction with rappers.

It's about personality obviously but the amazing voice helps. Was going to say she sounds a lot like a jazz singer (on 'Why You Always Here' in particular) but that's a common trait with early Sugababes as well. Maybe that's her stage school background coming into play. Still, credit to Rinse for having the foresight to run with her as a frontwoman in her own right. I doubt they were expecting her to be this commercially successful, although you can't entirely separate any of this from a renewed swagger surrounding post-Dizzee (kill me now) "UK urban pop".

The most heartening thing about this is that it doesn't feel watered down for a mainstream audience, like at all. If anything it gives lie to the notion that you have to water underground styles down to cross over. The producers have the sense to get out of the way and let Katy take centre stage but it doesn't feel like they're losing focus on the dancefloor or self-consciously courting pop audiences.

Got a bit of a shock when I thought she was singing in "Easy Please Me": "Now if there's one thing I can't stand it's Africans".

Haha I hear that every time! It never fails to make my ears pin back.

lol yep, me three.

"I mean dubstep to us is fucking ancient. We're like: 'Dubstep, again. Another dubstep conversation.' But the rest of the world is jumping on dubstep right now. Normally when it gets to that stage, it means we're nearly done with it. Like Katy says, funky is newer than dubstep. And that's where she actually comes from. Her first big hit that crossed over was a dubstep tune, but her first four tracks were garage and funky influenced. So the album's a hybrid of sound that's all of the underground, rather than a genre."

It's also very 90s sounding - the twin pillars of the album are 'Good Life' and 'Let Me Be Your Fantasy'.

Now with a real band!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nef_HoYRvIk

Here's the radio rip of the OG "Lights On"
http://www.mediafire.com/?fid9p4a5etoozia
Not that different but i listened to it a lot and was slightly disappointed by the released version

FWIW I wrote a bit about "good songs" in dance music for my 2010 wrap-up thread. This runs the line I was pushing above a bit harder than I mean it in general: at the time my plan was to write up "It's What You Do" later and basically argue in the opposite direction.

Tim's overflowing bounty of 2010 pop riches extravaganza thread

Ooh... That live thing sounded horribly like the brand new heavies. Oh well, at least it confirms that, yes, sadly at 30 years old I have developed a crush on a celebrity.

yeah, I was going to post "lol acid jazz"

"horribly" like the brand new heavies? what is "lol" about acid jazz? i just had to have this argument on freakytrig, ugh #fearofjazz #fearofsmooth #fearofclassy

"hard to get" is explicitly in that lineage

"dream on dreamer" is classic 4eva

I just don't like the brand new heavies, see?

well rectify that!

Only if you listen to steely dan.

what is "lol" about acid jazz?

removing the propulsiveness, the joy of physicality and adrenaline rushes that her songs capture so well; and replacing it with tedious filigrees - eg the gently tapped hats and ride - and stale signifiers - eg the twinned saxes, the bass player's gentle hat - designed to communicate to a "grown-up" TV audience that this is safe for them to buy and like, rather than a reinterpretation that serves the song.

i do actually intend to do that at some point!

actually if you like steely dan and katy b there's no reason for you not to like the brand new heavies.

xp i haven't watched that tv performance yet, i was asking what's so lol about acid jazz in the first place