Latest news with #SelfTitled
Scotsman
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Album reviews: Kae Tempest Gina Birch
Kae Tempest. Picture: Jesse Glazzard Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Kae Tempest: Self Titled Island Records ★★★★☆ Gina Birch: Trouble Now aged 70, Gina Birch remains at the punky edge of lo-fi art Third Man Records ★★★★☆ Gwenno: Utopia Heavenly Recordings ★★★★☆ As his wry fifth album title suggests, Self Titled is a revealing release from Kae Tempest which coincides with coming out as a trans man earlier this year. The acclaimed performance poet has drawn in the past on epic poetry, hymned London and wider society and told kitchen sink stories across preceding works but, with the encouragement of his producer Fraser T Smith, shines his light back in his own face and circle in typically eloquent style. Gwenno sings in Welsh, Cornish but predominantly English on her fourth solo outing I Stand on the Line is an epic filmic soundtrack for big sentiments on lineage and identity, as Tempest zeros in on his experiences of transitioning ('going through a second puberty') and transphobia ('how many strangers today will I upset with my existence'). Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Statue in the Square moves further from performance poetry towards hip-hop with lightning delivery, swagger, skittering beats, klaxons, foreboding chords and deeply personal beseeching lyrics ('it's not a disorder or a dysfunction') about the daily askance glances. The electro swirl Know Yourself is Tempest's tale of being saved by hip-hop ('I was learning how to capture a room with two phrases') while Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant brings his usual mournful empathy to bear on the softer melancholy of Sunshine on Catford. Guest-wise, Carl Jung weighs in - via sample, of course - on Hyperdistillation and Edinburgh's brilliant Young Fathers are immediately identifiable in the resonating coda of Breathe. Elsewhere, Tempest folds in gospel and soul influences to the contemplative Prayers to Whisper, provides a Venn diagram of neurodiversity acronyms on Diagnoses ('ancient conditions with brand new solutions') and salutes the progress in understanding, before putting a human face – his own? – to mental health issues on the tender closing track Till Morning with its compassionate declaration that 'I wish I could travel through time, find that child, guard that door, I would sit on the floor outside your room till morning'. Former Raincoats singer/bassist Gina Birch was the poster girl for the Tate's 2024 touring Women in Revolt exhibition, depicted screaming in a still from a 1977 Super 8 film. Now aged 70, she remains at the punky edge of lo-fi art, penning odes to comfortable footwear on her 2023 debut album I Play My Bass Loud. She teams up again with producer Youth for the follow-up, Trouble. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad I Thought I'd Live Forever addresses the gradual onset of decrepitude with the same wry wit, supported by reggae rhythms, acid guitar and dreamy backing vocals. Cello Song (Tape Echo) names two of its instruments. A third – Birch's voice – is impactful in its weathered croakiness. Keep to the Left is a distorted mantra on her political leanings, while Doom Monger teams heavy thoughts with light, dubby pop and Train Platform weaves whispery spoken word, pattering percussion and foreboding cello into a hypnotic Laurie Anderson-like concoction. Causing Trouble snaps out of the experimental reveries to appropriate Joy Division's She's Lost Control as the basis of another riot grrrl agitation, on which Birch has invited fellow female artists to make a roll call of inspirational feminist trailblazers from Mary Shelley to Kathleen Hanna. Trilingual artist Gwenno sings in Welsh, Cornish but predominantly English on her fourth solo outing. Utopia is an unashamedly nostalgic autobiographical album with a dreamy flow. Gwenno explores her family's roots over trip-hop beats, undulating guitar and shimmering percussion on London 1957. She names the title track after the Las Vegas club she would frequent back when she was performing in Lord of the Dance and elsewhere flashes forward to deliver a woozy ode to her daughter – 'she's growing inside of me and I wonder who she will be' – on the indie psych easy listening of St Ives New School. CLASSICAL Franz Xaver Mozart: Piano Quartet | Violin Sonatas cpo ★★★★☆ Imagine how Franz Xaver Mozart must have felt being 'his father's son': how much would have been expected of Wolfgang Amadeus' offspring. There are sure signs of accomplishment in the piano quartet and two violin sonatas included in this delightfully honest release featuring Freiburg-based chamber collaborators Hansjacob Staemmler (piano), Muriel Cantoreggi (violin, Johannes Erkes (viola) and Juris Teichmanis (cello). The opening Piano Quartet in G minor Op 1 journeys from lengthy sophistication and deliciously-crafted Adagio to the simplicity and charm of the final variations. The Violin Sonatasare every bit as touching, built to formula, and delivered with the same eloquence as the music itself. Franz Xaver inherited the essential Mozart genes. Finding his own distinctive musical voice was another matter. Ken Walton FOLK Eilidh Shaw and Ross Martin: Stay Here All Night self released ★★★★☆ Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Highland fiddle and guitar duo Eilidh Shaw and Ross Martin adopt their 'Birl-esque' alias in this relaxed mix of new and traditional tunes and contemporary songs. They're joined along the way by guests such as trombonist Chris Greive, who gruffly bolsters Swimmy Tunes, and piper Angus Mackenzie who blends into a gentle slow reel, Tune for Keith. Martin's guitar work provides considered accompaniments to Shaw's fiddle while his pedal steel lends a country vibe to the title track, a wistful song written by Shaw. Two Lighthouses, adapted from a Tim Dalling song, is a winsome excursion in waltz time featuring Casey Dreissen's western fiddle and Willie MacAskill's harmony vocals. In contrast, a no-nonsense trio of Highland jigs kicks off with The Thief of Lochaber jig while The Braes set sees familiar strathspeys and a reel, crisply accompanied by Martin.
The Guardian
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Kae Tempest: Self Titled review – the rhythms in his lyrics are still so distinct
On a track called Bless the Bold Future, Kae Tempest wrestles with the urge to bring children into a world beset by catastrophe; the landscape of the 39-year-old's fifth album Self Titled is indeed characterised by pain, anxiety and suffering. On Hyperdistillation, a man dies sleeping rough outside uninhabited penthouses as NHS backlogs threaten lives, and the ravey Diagnoses presents mental health issues as 'the right response to a world gone wrong,' while Statue in the Square's doomy grime reckons with a climate of transphobia (Tempest came out as non-binary in 2020 and earlier this year revealed his gender transition). And yet, there is something irrepressibly joyous about this album, which is essentially a collection of love letters: to the trans community, to the Londoner's home town, to his partner. Tempest's ability to imbue societal decay and personal torment with strange beauty, via lyricism honed on the performance poetry scene, is unparalleled, and his roots in the art form are still very much evident in his earnest, rhythmic delivery. Sometimes, the actual music struggles to keep up and fit in. While 2022's The Line Is a Curve let the words shine over a backdrop of classy, unobtrusive indie electronica, here the instrumentals are far more attention-grabbing: magisterial strings, gospelly R&B and, on Neil Tennant collaboration Sunshine on Catford, full-beam 1980s synth-pop. It can feel like a random grab bag of genres, and the potent sonics are sometimes overbearing. Then again, the effusiveness does help to underline the hope and hard-won happiness that, against all odds, underpins this rich, compelling and timely record.
NZ Herald
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Kylee De Thier shares bullying story as Pink Shirt Day ambassador
The role of ambassador involves sharing the Pink Shirt Day story, telling his own story. 'I think these anti-bullying programmes are effective when they get the right spokespeople and when it's more personal,' he says. His podcast is honest and unfiltered, and talks about his experiences at Gisborne Boys' High School. He criticises a programme he went through called Tu Tane aimed at developing 'good men', which he found 'misogynistic and stereotypical'. He talks about a Year 10 camp being particularly difficult, a low point of his bullying journey. De Thier said instead of 'teaching boys to become men', they could have taught them about things such as 'emotional intelligence', 'how to treat and respect women', 'sexuality and its many forms'. Gisborne Boys' High School principal Tom Cairns told the Gisborne Herald the Tu Tane programme was a framework designed for boys to be comfortable being who they wanted to be, and he was sorry to hear of De Thier's experience. Cairns said the school took bullying seriously and started every year with anti-bullying lessons in the junior school. They were marking Pink Shirt Day on Friday and had discussed the issue of respect at Monday's assembly this week. 'Respect means making space for people to be who they are – without fear, without judgment," assistant principal Maria Jefferson told the school's assembly. ' He waka eke noa" – we are all in this canoe together. 'That means we all belong here. We move forward together. No one gets left behind. 'We all want to be respected. So let's start by giving it. Be the kind of men who look after each other, not tear each other down.' De Thier said that when he was filming Self Titled and fleshing out his memories, he realised how bad the bullying had been. 'I had faced it since I was 5 years old. It's been my whole life – I haven't ever known anything else.' He said his bullying took various forms, from being physically punched by a fellow student at primary school to verbal abuse, which continued into his high school years. It was commonplace for him to be mocked and made fun of and excluded, so much so that he dreaded going to school, he said. As a child experiencing bullying daily, he felt isolated and alone. He started making content from a young age and found a community online. 'Because when I had no upstanders – no one to defend me – I had become my own upstander. 'Now I stand in pride and confidence. The reason I'm so hyper-independent is because the only other option was to crumble and fail. I still have trust issues,' he says. With 450,000 followers on TikTok and 220,000 on Instagram, De Thier is now living his best life. He got his Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Auckland and now works as a creative producer and marketing director for social media agency No Sad Cowboys. 'We manage social media personalities – TikTokers, Instagrammers and Twitch live-streamers,' he explains. The role of a social media agency is to protect and promote the talent, do their admin and connect them with brands. Things took off for De Thier in 2021 when his TikTok following grew substantially in just one week. In 2023, he landed a brand deal with L'Oreal and went to Paris to work with La Roche-Posay (a L'Oreal skincare brand). With his profile rising, social media agency Born Bred Talent approached him and went on to represent him before he moved to his current role. 'The main goal is to help kids like me in Gisborne and smaller towns because I was the only one like me growing up, but I knew there were other kids like me who didn't have the parents I had or the confidence I had to put themselves out there. 'As long as I'm helping one person, I'm happy. I don't really lean into the numbers or care about the money too much.'
