50 FOR 15
FAB L E
Full-throttle electronica
WHO THEY?
There’s been just the one release so far, but if there’s a toldyou-so moment to be had with a new artist in 2015, we’d
like to go large on the 19-year-old Devon-born and Brightondwelling Fable. ‘I Speak Words’, from her ‘Parasite’ threetracker, veers from gentle and delicate to frighteningly fierce
and frantic. It’s like shouting at a butterfly.
WHY FABLE?
Fable sounds ready-made to make waves. Big ones. ‘Parasite’
saw her backed by prolific London/Brighton symphonic trip hop
collective Archive and the Brighton connection has also led to
her working with fellow South Coaster Paul Hartnoll, once one
half of Orbital, lending her pipes to Hartnoll’s new 8.58 project
(which also involved a stint with A-league uber producer Flood).
TELL US MORE
She’s continuing to work with Archive and that bodes very
well for her debut album, which is expected to drop early this
spring. With Archive’s own new album out around about now
(‘Restriction’ is their 10th studio outing) you really shouldn’t
underestimate how good Fable’s first long-player is likely to be.
While she’s currently unsigned, we would like another wager. A
crisp 20 pound note says that won’t be the case for very long.
DEAT H IN T H E A F T E R N O O N
E L D E RB RO O K
Swedish pop, 1980s stylee
Laidback beats redefining the word “subtle”
As you may well have noticed, echoing ye olde 80s sound is
never a bad thing around these parts. Swedish two-piece Death
In The Afternoon (Linda Lomelino and Christian Nanzell) add
sleek vocal stylings and snazzy guitar licks to their rounded pop
schtick, all of which sometimes makes them come on a little like
a humanoid Daft Punk. Their most recent outing, ‘Let’s Talk’,
has enough of a kick to get even the most static listener tapping
a toe. But warm and groovy isn’t Death In The Afternoon’s only
flavour, showing off their range with the unsettling, alien-like
‘John Who’, while ‘Kino’ wouldn’t be out of place at your local
disco dancing emporium. Sit back and relax or get up and jump
about? You choose.
Twenty-year-old Londoner Alex Kotz makes the kind of music
that would warm the cockles of even the stoniest of hearts.
His distinctively lazy vocal is an absolute delight, but it’s what
lurks beneath that sets him up very nicely for potentially big
things this year. Even more impressive is the fact that he’s a
self-taught musician. His recent single, ‘Simmer Down’, entered
the world pretty much purring via Black Butter Records, home
to the likes of Rudimental, Jessie Ware and Gorgon City, and
as his people so eloquently put it, shows his “ability to create
brooding productions that fleck with light as if it’s about to
blossom brightly”. And we really wouldn’t bet against it.