Now Hear This: Laura Marling, Cadet, Jany Green and Dadju, plus spotlight artist Karim Kamar

In her weekly column, our music correspondent goes through the best new releases

South London pianist Karim Kamar

If you’ve managed to read the latest instalment of our On the Record series, you’d think I wouldn’t have had time to listen to any new music this week. But as much as I have been blasting out Shania Twain’s Come On Over (sorry, neighbours), there are plenty of fresh releases to get stuck into.

The word “triumph” is overused in music criticism so I avoided it in my full review of Laura Marling’s new record, Song for Our Daughter (read here), but I’m going to say it here. Because it is a triumph by an artist already considered by many as one of the best of her generation. It’s the album we need in these difficult times, and one I hope brings you joy this Bank Holiday Weekend and beyond.

Taking cues from Marling’s Seventies Americana (but also elements of Nineties pop) is singer-songwriter Mabes, with her charming new single “Stuck in the Rain”. I’m very excited by a new US artist, Jany Green, who’s uploaded a few tracks produced by fellow Alaskan, Ralph Castelli, to Spotify. His latest, “Suffocate”, is an uplifting jam sprinkled with bright electric guitar riffs, bass grooves and cheerful synth lines; there’s a hip-hop influence in his vocal delivery but the instrumentation adds wonderful rock and psychedelia tones.

Sophie and the Giants have teamed up with Purple Disco Machine (producer Tino Piontek) for the resplendent “Hypnotized”, while Algerian-French rapper Rim’K joins forces with French-Congolese artist Dadju on “Rose Rouge”. If you’re looking for more of a French rap fix (I always am), there’s also Lujipeka’s moody “La Lune”, and Moha La Squale’s “On Roule”.

The Rated Legend, the debut studio album from the late British rapper Cadet is finally here. Produced by his cousin, Krept, the posthumous record is comprised from previously unreleased material from recording sessions, and includes guest appearances from Wretch 32, Chip, Swarmz and more. Krept says of the project: “It was a labour of love and passion to create this project from just hearing random tracks he recorded and turning it into a full body of work. Cadet recorded so much good music that it would have felt wrong to have not done this.”

I’m keen on Tatiana Hazel’s new single “Don’t Care” – the shuffly, shimmering electronic beats remind me of “Love My Way” by The Psychedelic Furs, definitely an Eighties mood. I have yet to be convinced by similar influences on the new Strokes album, but our critic Helen Brown’s review is helping. NCZA Lines recently released the disorientating (in a good way) “Pure Luxury”, and you’ve also got a rousing new effort from Phoebe Bridgers, “Kyoto”.

If you’re looking for reading material, you could check out the updated edition of Young Punks, the memoir by professional photographer Sheila Rock, whose work was published regularly in The Face and on a number of its covers.

The work shown in this book was taken in the early stages of her career and features some of punk’s lead protagonists: Paul Weller and The Jam, Robert Smith, John Lydon, The Buzzcocks, The Damned and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Sheila says, “Punk permeated everything in fashion, music and lifestyle and its influence was everywhere you looked. My job as a photographer was to capture what was happening and let the pictures tell the story.”

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My spotlight artist this week is Karim Kamar, a self-taught pianist based in south London. His new single, “We Still Love”, comes from his studio album Smll Mvmnts, scheduled for release on 1 May via Ostereo.

The track is a simple but deeply moving work inspired by themes of endurance and overcoming difficult periods in our lives. Karim explains: “It’s about retaining hope and love despite all the trials and tribulations we face. It’s about getting up and continuing to do what you love, to be who you love, to fight for the things you believe, and specifically from an artist’s perspective, to continue working at your craft and to output work even if it feels like no one is paying attention”.

See the premiere of the accompanying video to “We Still Love” and read my Q&A with Karim, below:

– Hey Karim how is your 2020 so far? Weird, I imagine, as per everyone else’s.

2020 got off to a great start, I had a really good vision for what I wanted to accomplish this year, and I had some great projects lined up, and then like everyone else, we get side-swiped by Covid-19. I’m in a very privileged situation in that most of my work hasn’t been cancelled – just postponed – till later in the year. But I am very anxious and worried for some of my friends and other businesses that have been hit very hard by the situation.

– Tell me a bit about how you got into piano music

If I was to pinpoint the moment it was probably around 2013, I was struggling to find my musical identity. I wanted to be a hip-hop producer and I was writing all these melodies thinking that I needed singers or rappers in order for the music to have any value. I wasn’t having any luck getting my music heard or picked up by anyone, so I was really disheartened trying to figure out who I was and what I was doing. It was around then that I stumbled on the works of Ryuichi Sakamoto and it really opened my eyes on how to make and write modern solo piano music. Instead of trying to fit into a mould of pop and hip-hop music that was constantly straying away from melody heavy music, I decided to focus on writing melodies for solo piano.

– What inspired you to write this particular tune?

‘We Still Love’ is a very simple piece that was inspired by themes of endurance and overcoming. It’s about retaining hope and love despite all the trials and tribulations we face. It’s about getting up and continuing to do what you love, to be who you love, to fight for the things you believe, and specifically from an artist’s perspective, to continue working at your craft and to output work even if it feels like no one is paying attention.

– What else have you got lined up for this year?

Hopefully an album launch/concert at some point once we’ve got through this pandemic. It’s almost like the whole year has been written off so it’s really hard to see what else is in the pipeline. But to be honest, just getting back to a state of normality and security would be nice. I have some exciting brand collaborations/projects that I can’t talk about just yet, and I’m hoping that they’ll get picked up again once we’re out of lockdown.

– What’s your number one tip to stave off self-isolation boredom?

I actually contracted the virus earlier this week so I’ve been bed bound for most of my days, however before that I was actually enjoying self-isolation haha. In my situation it’s pretty easy to say as I have many creative outlets, but my number one tip is, of course, learn an instrument. I know tons of people, including myself, who have been doing online tutorials and videos to help people learn, so why not buy a keyboard (if you haven’t got one) and learn the piano.