BAD WITH PHONES

Debut release, Marinade makes for a personality-packed introduction to BAD WITH PHONES’ multifaceted musical world. Arrestingly minimal at its core – but boasting a brilliantly genre-agnostic approach extending from filthy funk (‘Symmetry’) and low slung hip hop (‘Monica’), to shimmering alt-soul (‘Needles’) and swirling trap (‘Armour’) – it’s a mellow set powered by irresistible grooves and often overlaid with lo-fi acoustic guitar loops. BWP’s versatile vocals further add to the effect, tracing stark pen portraits of south London life in a defiantly laid-back manner pitched somewhere between singing and rapping. Even more intriguingly, on the Blood Orange-ish R&B of ‘Refrigerator’, he conjures a female alter-ego by pitch-shifting his vocal upwards and letting his imagination run free.