South London's KEYAH/BLU is seeking out a sense of balance.
Each new track fills out this vision a little more, with her penchant for pared down production matched against unexpected elements, such as pieces of jazz or twilight funk.
Murky new jammer 'Sweet' pushes her vocals right down into the mix, a whispered incantation that seems to underline her stellar creativity.
The visuals are an entrancing achievement, illustrating the seven levels of her consciousness in an eye-catching yet ironic style.
KEYAH/BLU explains: "I wrote ‘Sweet’ one morning after sneaking out to my boyfriend's house to spend the night with him – I got back home the next day and nobody had noticed I had even left. The song is about knowing what's good for you whilst also indulging in things that might not be so good, and finding the balance. Light and dark. It's inspired by human duality, ultimately. Women and men are hard and soft all at once. We fight this within us constantly, depending on the situation, leaving parts of ourselves feeling helpless while others thrive."
She continues: "For the video, originally all I had was this image of 7 ninjas on a beach floating around in my head, like the 7 levels of my consciousness, and with the help of my friend Sonny Jake we were able to pull together an ironic narrative. I wanted to focus on feelings that weren't necessarily touched upon in the song, the kidnapping has a lot of different meanings. The dark overpowering light, or vice versa, or masculine and feminine, or yes and no. It's about the duality – but ultimately it just gives the song a nice twist that it doesn't have on an audio only level."
"I'm not a psycho girlfriend, I just wanted to show a side of me that the lyrics didn’t."
Tune in now.
Photo Credit: Beni Masiala
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