FRESH NEW KICKS: 1000 EP- Ben Khan

Every individual likes to imagine they are unknowable, but Ben Khan pulls off the conceit more convincingly than most. Since first materializing on the music scene in 2013, he’s proved as slippery as an eel to attempts to pin him down and it’s clear he likes it that way. A recent V Magazine interview proved less than enlightening; so far, the best insight into the mercurial workings of Khan’s mind seems to have come from Red Bull: he’s fascinated by Salvador Dali, they report, and one of his influences is the indomitable Pat Benatar. 

FRESH NEW KICKS: 1000- Ben Khan

Really, we should have been prepared for new Ben Khan– after all, the natural heir to Jai Paul announced a May tour only 2 months ago. And yet, even with prior knowledge, it would be difficult to envisage the pure excellence of what the young beatmaker has delivered. 1000 is a jaunty, bubbling slice of the sweetest electronic R&B around; sure there’s the requisite coke-and-fucking references, but at its heart this track is a joyful confession of infatuation. ‘I don’t need much/Just a touch/You’re just a crush’ Ben croons over pulsing, euphoric production, all lasers and vocoder effects that demand an immediate replay. And then another. Oh and five more for good measure. Yep, Ben Khan is back with a vengeance.

Follow @Ben__Khan on Twitter now.

CHINESE WHISPERS: GARREN- Wanna Be There

Chinese Whispers presents the tracks you might have missed because you actually have shit to do.

Electronic R&B is a genre suffused with talented producers, so much so that it can sometimes be difficult to decide exactly which chopped vocal sample is deserving of your discerning attention. Luckily, there’s no such uncertainty with young San Francisco beatmaker GARREN. His latest offering, Wanna Be There, includes a dash of synth, a dollop of fuzzy soul and a liberally sprinkled handful of chilled percussion. If that sentence was too cutesy for you- basically he’s got the goods and he knows how to use them. Interestingly, GARREN only began receiving buzz after it was revealed some trick name Gvinchi was ripping off his tracks and presenting them as his own- when the plagiarism was exposed, all the music collectives and labels sniffing around the fraud hightailed it to the real artist behind the sound.

Also worth mentioning are GARREN’s excellent remixes. His rework of All Me manages to turn Drake‘s menacing ‘I’ve got some dollar, you have no dollar’ anthem into a coquettish hymn to dat lyf, complete with twinkling instrumentation and mid-song choral chants.

Equally impressive is his interpretation of FKA twigs’ sultry Lights On, which builds to a blissfully orgasmic explosion, nestling twigs’ signature coos among a slap-happy beat and a gorgeous piano riff. And that’s all within the first 53 seconds- it only gets better from thereon in.

Follow @GarrenLangford on Twitter now. 

FRIENDLY REMINDERS: Mirrorwriting- Jamie Woon

Jamie Woon‘s biggest misfortune was to emerge in a year that favoured big soundscapes. Commercially, the charts were dominated by joyful, bold pop tunes- this was a time when ruby-hued hair was sported by at least 1 in 10 girls of a certain age thanks to Rihanna’s Loud era, and Jessie J claimed BBC Sound of 2011 off the back of her excellent first single, Do It Like A Dude, which remains the only exciting thing she’s managed to produce in the last 3 years. On the critical side of things, James Blake had emerged as the new underground darling, thanks to pioneering a now ubiquitous fusion of heavy electronic production with vulnerable, raw vocal performances. Frank Ocean had just dropped Nostalgia, Ultra while Katy B raked in the plaudits for her debut album that also helped reignite a new passion for UK dance music in the mainstream. Oh, and Adele did quite well with a record titled 21, but let’s be honest, we’ve heard enough about that one.

 Here’s that video that FKA twigs hates.

CHINESE WHISPERS: Take Control Of You- Nao

The internet has been keeping one eye carefully trained on London-based songstress Nao, ever since she teamed up with the shadowy A.K Paul to present us with the sumptuous So Good back in June. Since then she’s been touring with electronic outfit Little Dragon and has just released her debut EP So Good, available on iTunes here. Now she’s decided to lift our flagging spirits on a wintery Monday by dropping the razor-sharp EP cut, Take Control Of You. Over an insistent hand-clap driven rhythm and pulsing synths, Nao lays down an ultimatum to her man, asserting she’s “Tired of complaining/Your turn to hold it down/I’m done explaining”. If only all our arguments could sound this infectiously excellent.

Nao headlines Corsica Studios on December 11th- grab tickets here and follow her on Twitter @thisnao.