Review: Banks at Koko, London

Just before Banks takes the stage at Koko, the PA is blaring out a mixtape of 90s R&B ballads. It's wall-to-wall bumping and grinding and getting freaky "on you".

It's also a great illustration of how far we've come. Banks has taken that R&B template and bludgeoned it with the sub-bass paranoia of Massive Attack. "Before I ever met you, I never knew I could be broken in so many ways," she quivers in her opening number. It's bruised and tortured and magnificent.

What separates Banks from the rest of the sad sack R&B pack (Drake, Frank Ocean and her erstwhile touring buddy The Weeknd) is her sheer physical presence. Constantly back-lit, she prowls the stage like a grown up Wednesday Addams, draped in black and dancing as though she's trying to raise the spirits.


The spooky/sexy vibe is only enhanced by her sultry, spine-tingling vocals, which really shine during a mid-set acoustic section - featuring a breathy jazz reading of Warm Water, and a playful acoustic take on Aaliyah's Are You That Somebody? The crowd, surprisingly, knows every word of both - although the best reaction is reserved for the yearning Waiting Game, which builds to a stunningly claustrophobic climax.

"I'm buzzing off your energy," the singer beams as the set draws to a close. But she has one last, secret weapon: A new song, Stick, built around the irresistible click of a castanet (think Missy Elliot's Pass That Dutch). Smoking hot and instantly memorable, it must be a shoo-in for her next, breakthrough single.

As the song unfolds, Banks struts to the front of the stage and purrs: "I wanna know how you taste." Perhaps we haven't come that far, after all.


SETLIST

Before I Ever Met You

This Is What It Feels Like

Change

Brain

Goddess

Bedroom wall

Fall over

Warm Water

Are You That Somebody? (Aaliyah cover)

Waiting Game

Stick

Encore

What You Need (The Weeknd cover)

PS: Banks plays Koko again on Tuesday, 1 April. It's sold out but there were a few last-minute production tickets on the door tonight. As you can probably tell, I'd recommend it.

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Beyonce: Grown Woman (alternate version)

It's easy to see why Grown Woman didn't make the final tracklisting of Beyoncé's BEYONCÉ. Thematically, it chimes perfectly with the album's message ("I am a fully paid-up feminist who happens to enjoy filthy sex with Jay-Z") but stylistically, the song's peppy marimba rhythms are at odds with the stripped back rumble of Beyonce's libido.

Still, it's a lovely treat at the end of the video album - with a giddy, Nyan Cat-inspired collection of gifable lunacy. Now, thanks to a mysterious leaker on YouTube, we have an even more deranged, cartoonish version of the video.

Watch it now before the lawyers take it down. The lawyers have taken it down...

No, wait. It's back.

Beyonce - Grown Woman (alternate version)

And if that has stopped working, the original is still pretty amazing.


And there's also a remix video, also featuring the new graphics over here. I can barely keep up.

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Ora-cular Spectacular

Exciting times: Rita Ora, aka "The Blonde Rihanna" aka "the most mystifying Pyramid Stage booking of all time", has returned with a new single from her second album. Produced by Calvin Harris (how 2011) it's a confident comeback, if rather slight on the tune front.

Built around a digitally degraded guitar riff, I Will Never Let You Down showcases Calvin's instinct for pop dynamics, with a cute, syncopated verses that burst into life for the hook. While inferior singers would try to match that exuberance measure for measure, Rita is canny enough to reign in her vocals and be carried along by the music.

It's subtler than you're used to on a Calvin song, but it's the sort of track that'll float to the surface of your conciousness after a couple of plays on Radio 1.

The video, which has just "gone live" was directed by Italian photographer Francesco Carrozzini, who previously helmed Beyoncé's Jealous. It is quite 80s, in the same way that Boy George in a Global Hypercolor T-shirt would be quite 80s.

Rita Ora - I Will Never Let You Down

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Introducing Wrathschild

No, no, no.

Not Wrathchild. Wrathschild.

There, that's better.

Wrathschild are Wolfy (left, real name Ro Danishei) and Simon Curtis (right, wearing a crown), who've been hovering on the periphery of major pop stardom as solo artists for the last five years. They've been friends since they were 14, but only started writing together in earnest two years ago.

It's all been kept under wraps until this week, when their debut single, Fall In Love, premiered on Billboard. And it is quite simply one of the best-produced pop songs I've heard in a long time: 3'38" of crashing production and quivering synths, with a tongue-in-cheek lyric about the lack of romance in pop lyrics. "My morning breath and your walk of shame don't get my heart racing," notes Curtis, drily.

Instead, the duo want a prom night love story, "just like an 80s movie". So, naturally, the middle 8 takes the form of a nonsensical African chant (in the best traditions of Lionel Ritchie and Dream Academy) before the final chorus explodes like the fireworks at the end of Grease.

It all points to a couple of songwriters who are steeped in pop history and know their way around the dynamics of a hit single (on this evidence, they could even be this generation's George Merrill and Shannon Rubicam). I'll be interested to hear how things go from here...


PS: "Sex will forever be on our minds. Well, I want the real thing, just like an 80s movie". I wonder which 80s movie they've been watching? Presumably 9½ Weeks, not Weekend at Bernies.

PPS: I would pay good money to hear 80s hair metal band Wrathchild cover this song.

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Ten songs you may have missed: A lazy journalism special

Hello!

I'm technically on holiday this week, but there are tons of good videos pouring out of the pop funnel, so I thought I'd compile a slapdash "Songs You May Have Missed" update. Rather than the usual "unique take" on this week's releases, I am literally cut and pasting what other, more committed music websites are saying. You're welcome.

1) Kelis - Rumble
"The video sees Kelis performing the track whilst sat on a chair in the middle of a lake." [Chartshaker]




2) The Black Keys - Fever
"Twangy organs and tinges of ambiance" [Consequence of Sound]




3) Pixies - Snakes
"A group of papier mache-headed bandits plan a robbery"
[Rolling Stone]




4)Justin Timberlake - Not A Bad Thing
"El vídeo se presenta como un «documental sobre la búsqueda del amor», basado en la supuesta historia de una pareja real en la que el hombre pidió matrimonio a su novia en un tren rumbo a Nueva York."
[El Remix]




5) Tinashe - 2 On (ft Schoolboy Q)
"The song is an ode to getting turnt (??) and getting even more turnt (????) — too turnt up to function, if you will (?????). Built around a slinky, snap-heavy beat, the track is an earworm in the same way Cassie's Me & U and Ciara's Goodies became instant bump/grind, pop/lock smashes." [Kick Kick Snare]




6) Kylie - Sexercize
"In my opinion it's a really bad choice as a single."
[Josepvinaixa - who nonetheless posts five alternate cuts of the video]




7) London Grammar - Devil Inside
"A snippet of London Grammar‘s eerie cover of INXS' 1989 hit Devil Inside can be heard in the latest Game Of Thrones trailer but the British trio has kindly shared the full version on their SoundCloud. The Strong hitmakers transform the moody rock song into a bare-bones ballad that more than does justice to the original." [idolator]





8) Dominique Young Unique - Throw It Down
"It's like some weird morph of M.I.A. and Azealia Banks, but I think I like Dominique Young Unique"s new video" [Wotyougot]




9) Royal Blood - Little Monster
"My mind just got a little more blown by the fact these riffs are coming from Mike Kerr's bass guitar!" [Some Kind Of Awesome]




10) Lady Gaga - G.U.Y.
"Really though, what the actual fuck is going on here?" [Jezebel]

Not bad, huh? Even the Lady Gaga video is worth watching, although I don't think it's going to turn the ArtPop album campaign around. Don't be put off by the 12-minute running time, by the way, the last four minutes are credits.

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Two amazing things happened on Radio 1 last night while you were watching Secret Eaters

1) Zane Lowe made Tove Lo's Habits the hottest record in the world.

In case you hadn't noticed, we're obsessed with Tove Lo (you can read about that obsession here and here) and now it seems Zane Lowe agrees.

Last night, he made her song Habits his "hottest record in the world", correctly describing it as "incredibly special". He also revealed that the proper pronunciation of Tove Lo's name is "Toe-vuh Low".

Toe-vuh was on the phone during the show, and declared she'd written her album in a Scandinavian "dungeon". You can hear the chat on the Radio 1 website, and watch the brand new video for Habits below...

If you love as much as we do, why not head over to iTunes, where you can download it as part of Toe-vuh's Truth Serum EP.

Tove Lo - Habits


2) Banks covered an old Aaliyah song

The other obsession we're harbouring at Discopop Towers is Creme Eggs LA soul singer Banks. Everything she touches literally turns to gold. That makes tying shoelaces impossible - but luckily she can just turn some paper into gold and use that to hire a shoelace-tying slave. Result.

She popped up on Phil and Alice's "Live Lounge Late" to perform her new single, Brain, and a cover of Aaliyah's unimpeachable Are You That Somebody. The full performance is available on Radio 1 - but Banks has helpfully snipped out the Aaliyah bit with her gold-plated scissors and bunged it up on Soundcloud.


Good for you, licence fee payers. Good for you.

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