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Bido Lito! April 2015 Reviews
tUnE-yArDs (Keith Ainsworth / arkimages.co.uk)
shop across the city. A year ago she was only
really known in dark and dusty poetry circles
as a spoken word artist with an impressive
command of the English language, but now
she is much more than that. Tonight in The
Kazimier her growing popularity is clearly on
display, and the venue is as busy as I have
ever seen it. Voices murmur and bodies
shuffle in anticipation of getting the best
view of the Mercury Award nominee.
Tempest arrives on stage with confidence,
spurred on by a raucous cheer from the sea
of voices in front of her. She is humble, she
is appreciative, and you could even begin to
believe that she is a little shy until she picks up
the microphone. Tempest is a performer who
thrives on intimacy but she has a voice loud
enough to fill any space in the UK. From the
off she’s in command of the crowd, speaking
about inequality, government legislation
and generally just how excited she is to be
in Liverpool. Whist she raps her way through
a tight set, her group create a soundscape
of electro/hip hop/dance fusion that carries
each song energetically to the next. Tracks
like Lonely Daze and Theme From Becky
use Tempest’s gritty pub-chat narrative and
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squeeze it in-between elegant and heart-felt
melodic refrains that create a magical end
product. Her songs are powerful, slick and
engaging. Unfortunately at times the level
of the drum pads and the various electronic
sounds compete with the lyricism and very
occasionally the brilliantly crafted words
are lost. However, on this musical journey,
Tempest addresses us at every pause and talks
directly to the audience as if we’re all just sat
together on the back of a bus, putting the
world to rights. Tempest is not somebody who
is pretending to be something she isn’t, she’s
one of us. The highlight of the evening comes
in the form of her critically acclaimed work
Brand New Ancients, a spoken-word epic from
2012. Alone with the microphone, the Londoner
silences the room and performs the powerful,
brilliantly written verse that originally shot her
to fame.
Tonight, Kate Tempest has proved that she
truly is an artist worthy of a Mercury Award
nomination and not just a spoken-word artist
giving music a go. She is an exciting rapper
with an abundance of talent. As the lights
come on, the crowd turn into a queue of people
desperate to chat to tonight’s performer and
you get the feeling that she will stay around
and speak to each and every one of them.
Paddy Hughes / @paddyhughes89
TUNE-YARDS
Harvest Sun @ Anglican Cathedral
Going to church is normally a sombre
and sober event but tonight’s sermon offers
something a little bit different from the usual
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