Kate Tempest | ||
| Allmusic Biography : When an artist lists both the Wu-Tang Clan and Samuel Beckett as its influences, it is often the stuff of hipster fluff, but U.K. poet and rapper Kate Tempest backs those name-drops up with a Big Dada recording contract and a Ted Hughes Award for innovation in poetry. Born in Brockley, South London, Tempest launched her career at 16, performing at open-mike nights at the local record shop. In 2010, she formed the hip-hop group Sound of Rum while launching a career in solo performance poetry. Between the two gigs, she found herself opening shows for artists as diverse as post-punk poet John Cooper Clarke and rapper Scroobius Pip. Sound of Rum released their album Balance in 2011, while Tempests first book of poetry, Everything Speaks in Its Own Way, was released by Zingaro Books in 2012. In 2013, she performed her work Brand New Ancients with orchestral backing at Londons Battersea Arts Centre, which won the Ted Hughes Award for innovation in poetry that same year. Tempest made her solo album debut in 2014 with Everybody Down, released by the Ninja Tune-affiliated label Big Dada. The young talent returned in 2016 with her second book and first novel, The Bricks That Built the Houses, a tale focused on class, race, and sexuality. The book was a success and went on to win the Sunday Times Award for Best Selling Novel. 2016 wasnt short of material from the young poet, seeing the release of her second record, Let Them Eat Chaos later that year. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 3 Title: Everybody Down Released: 2014-05-16 Tracks: 12 Duration: 48:29 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Marshall Law (05:39) 2 The Truth (03:21) 3 Lonely Daze (03:58) 4 Chicken (02:46) 5 The Beigeness (03:08) 6 Theme From Becky (03:55) 7 Stink (02:46) 8 The Heist (03:54) 9 To the Victor the Spoils (03:01) 10 Circles (05:06) 11 A Hammer (03:42) 12 Happy End (07:13) |
| Everybody Down : Allmusic album Review : Falling somewhere between John Cooper Clarke and Scroobius Pip, or the Streets and Samuel Beckett, Londons Kate Tempest is a poet/rapper, and the real deal on both sides of that slash. Everybody Down, her debut album for the Big Dada label, could be considered performance poetry -- just like her piece Brand New Ancients, which was performed with orchestral backing at Londons Battersea Arts Centre and won the Ted Hughes Award for innovation in poetry that same year -- but the music from Dan Carey is beat-driven, street stuff, plus if the urban characters that wind in and out of this story arent wearing hoodies and sneakers, it must because theyre taking their weekly bath. Thats the problem with the aptly titled Everybody Down, as this concept LP deals with three characters who are so lonely, theyve become spiteful, sullen, snide, and self-destructive while only speaking of hope as something encountered in dreams. Its a drab palette with the only wash of color being how skillfully Tempest paints the picture. Besides, its easy to slide into unattractiveness when your ex-convict uncle comes around and gives a look that says not "I love you" but "This is business and you should go" ("To the Victor the Spoils"), and while Brand New Ancients had its share of phoenixes, this one is all about the ashes. Even if Everybody Down is all thrills, pills, and bellyaches, and mostly the last, Tempest is only 27 and already dealing in pop music as high art. Forgive her for not raging against the darkness, and then delight in how she sings the fallen and forgottens song so well. | ||
 | Album: 2 of 3 Title: Let Them Eat Chaos Released: 2016-10-07 Tracks: 13 Duration: 47:36 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Picture a Vacuum (02:47) 2 Lionmouth Door Knocker (02:44) 3 Ketamine For Breakfast (03:10) 4 Europe Is Lost (05:31) 5 We Die (03:24) 6 Whoops (03:38) 7 Brews (00:47) 8 Dont Fall In (02:51) 9 Pictures on a Screen (05:05) 10 Perfect Coffee (05:31) 11 Grubby (04:07) 12 Breaks (02:42) 13 Tunnel Vision (05:15) |
| Let Them Eat Chaos : Allmusic album Review : On the masterful follow-up to her Mercury Prize-nominated debut, Everybody Down, British poet/rapper Kate Tempest offers a vivid portrait of human failings and worldly tumult as seen through the microcosm of an unnamed South London street at 4:18 A.M. The simplicity of the spoken word is used to great effect as she begins in widescreen, zooming in first on our sun, solar system, and finally on Earth. Tranquil and soft from a distance, the lens soon magnifies a geographical pin prick amid what is soon painted as the unsteady chaos of a city, and with this deft introduction, Tempest tosses the listener into the fray, putting in motion an interlocking group of narratives set to producer Dan Careys skittering beats and dynamic electro backdrop. The characters of Let Them Eat Chaos are often trapped by circumstance or their own shortcomings, searching for meaning, redemption, or simply relief, and, as of 4:18am, are the only seven people currently awake on their street. In the two years since her debut, Tempest has published not only a new collection of poetry, but her first novel as well, and her skill at storytelling allows her to portray big ideas -- gentrification, climate change, political unrest -- on a small canvas. Half-spoken, half-rapped, the 13 tracks on Let Them Eat Chaos follow the inner and outer journeys of the inhabitants as they leave their private worlds to eventually discover each others existence. Its a fascinating work of words, for sure, but the weight of Careys arrangements and the Tempests surprisingly nimble touch as an emcee make for something distinctive and essential. | ||
 | Album: 3 of 3 Title: The Book of Traps and Lessons Released: 2019-06-14 Tracks: 11 Duration: 45:02 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Thirsty (03:26) 2 Keep Moving Dont Move (05:49) 3 Brown Eyed Man (03:05) 4 Three Sided Coin (04:02) 5 I Trap You (03:32) 6 All Humans Too Late (03:06) 7 Hold Your Own (04:07) 8 Lessons (04:04) 9 Firesmoke (03:34) 10 Holy Elixir (04:56) 11 Peoples Faces (05:17) |