Recommended Music: Ethel Cain, Benjamin Clementine, Kilo Kesh and MorMor
Four Artists Recommended By Followers
About a week ago, in Substack chat, I asked followers for music recommendations in the hopes of varying my tastes, and my morning commute. I received quite a few great and fascinating suggestions of artists I’d either never heard of or had only heard of in passing. The results were quite thrilling, and has made me consider making this a monthly query I pitch to subscribers.
As a result, I thought it’d be cool to write a piece where I shared my thoughts about some of the best stuff I’ve listened to because of readers. Enjoy!
Ethel Cain’s Preacher’s Daughter
Ethel Cain, a transgender alternative, dream pop artist came to me via rachel's digest. I’ve known of Cain since her ethereal EP Golden Age, but haven’t had a chance to fully dive in until now, when I chose to listen to her debut album Preacher’s Daughter. Grappling with religion and identity amid desolate landscapes, the music’s Americana roots are given newer garments by virtue of her industrial, classic rock, and ambient influences. Hailing from a Tallahassee, Florida Southern Baptist community, Cain’s complex relationship with the church emerges in every line of her tragic poetic verse. Sometimes she can be accused of hewing too closely to Lan Del Rey, but I find her far more musical adventurous, akin to Florence and the Machine, even in her thematic familiarity. “A House in Nebraska,” a near-eight-minute weepy ballad takes contours similar to many of Florence Welch’s composition by by relying on big arena rock gusto by way of a solo that feels at home with Kings of Leon. It’s the kind of adventurous blurring the boundaries between genres that I can get behind.
Benjamin Clementine’s And I Have Been
The best of these recommendations came via Windy Knot. I’m not really sure why I haven’t been devouring British artist Benjamin Clementine from the jump. The singer-songwriter has experienced plenty of adversity in his career, first when he moved to Paris, where he experienced homelessness, then as he tried to break through in the music business without the benefit of a single genre to keyhole.
His piano-laden compositions, his rhythmic delivery and vocal scatting often reminds me of Nina Simone and Neneh Cherry. I listened to his debut album, At Least For Now, and his newest release, And I Have Been, and I have been marveling at his playfulness and compositional courage. He so often swerves and swivels when you least expect it. Even after hearing his songs a few times now, particularly, “Residue” and “I Won’t Complain,” I’ve often been surprised by his choices even though I know what’s coming. He’s such a fulfilling, multifaceted artist, with a perspective born from such diverse experiences, that you can’t help but feel his iconoclastic perspective in every corner of his music.
Kilo Kesh’s American Gurl
Singer-songwriter Kilo Kesh makes the kind of pop that, if you're musician, you immediately want to dissect how she layers her hooks, melodies and decisions. A dark humor coats her lyrics, and her songs always proceed in unexpected ways. This recommendation arrived via Bhargav Annigeri, and I've been listening to Kesh's singular "On the Outside (Justin's Song)" from her sophomore album American Gurl since then.
In "On the Outside (Justin's Song)" you of course get the feel of Grimes’ “Kill V Main” and Charli XCX. The call and response vocal layering, with heavy, triphop beats, ending with a pithy video game inspired melody is a perfectly crafted earworm. “New Tricks: Art, Aesthetics, and Money” is a missile-guided critique of commerce masquerading as an earnest joke track, and “Choice Cowboy” is another stirring composition on this unflinching, artfully calibrated album.
MorMor’s Semblance
Canadian artist MorMor use of reverb and big synths often remind me of "Perfumed Genius," while his lyrical content harkens to Frank Ocean. This selection comes via Mike Rekola. I first listened to MorMor years ago, when his catchy as fuck R&B dream pop single "Whatever Comes to Mind" dropped. On his newest album, Semblance, knowing melancholy lurks in between the propulsive pop fringes. And the hooks, are always big and bold; the colors, tones and moods of this album are nuanced, and hidden within the thick mix. You get to a song like “Crawl,” and hear a line like “my eyes have lost their light for you,” and then the barely perceptible, light double-tracked reverb vocal slinks right past you like a blade in the night. There is patience and care here, the kind that requires a reciprocal function by the audience. And when the listener does so, the leap is worth the time.
Also want to thank Charlotte Dune for offering Agah Bahari as a recommendation and Austin Belzer for Fly By Midnight, Kim Petras, and Reneé Rapp.
As I said, I’ll try to make this a monthly component as I’m always looking for new music. So stay tuned to the chat!
Wow! This is what I call great reader engagement. Well done! I’ll check out these recommendations.
These recommendations are glorious! Mormor on repeat!