Home House Sessions

Home House sessions. February 22nd 2011

Following last week's BRIT awards, to see three upcoming artists in front of 70 people in the grand drawing room of Home House is like seeing them in your own lounge. BRITs sponsor, Raymond Weil, encourage these showcase gigs, providing the chance to see new artists before the wider world grows aware of their talent.

Previous nights have included New Young Pony Club and Wild Beasts, and tonight's acts are three more stars in the ascent, with more talent than their young age might suggest. As newcomers, they wisely play short sets, with the presence of cover versions less about lack of material, and more about entertaining the small audience. The artists are so new even they are unsure when their albums are being released, but all, after glancing at their publicist, promise them "sometime this year."

First up is Loick Essien, who respecting other songwriters and genres, easily covers The Script's 'For the First Time', his soulful voice giving it a new lease of life. He then presents an acoustic take on his recent single 'Stuttering', presumably not capitalising on the success of The King's Speech, but with a female backing singer beautifully standing in for studio trickery and N-Dubz who feature on the recorded version. It's the sort of touching insight into girls making him nervous that, well, gets girls.

Talay Riley is a tall East Londoner who also plays the gig like it's the O2, good naturedly sharing with us the fact he is regrettably wearing freshly purchased briefs. His cover of Jessie J's already ubiquitous 'Take it like a Dude' does little to disguise the fact that the song isn't as good as it thinks it is, but he gives it a good airing. Having already written for other people he is not lacking material; playing what sounds suspiciously like a 'summer smash' he apparently wrote only 3 days ago, and announcing 'Go-getter' as a song he intended for Jason Derulo, but kept for himself. It's a move he won't regret, with its insistent chorus about getting the girl; it imbeds itself after first listen and also promises to be massive. Both are signed to Sony, demonstrating the label's continuing good eye for R&B/Soul.

Finally Danish Nanna Fabricius, or Oh Land as she prefers, arrives on stage, dressed like a Scandinavian superhero exploring the fashion collision between Zebras and Doc Martens. She looks great of course, but Bat For Lashes, Lykke Li and Florrie had best look out, as Oh Land is going to be ruffling some serious head-feathers at the kooky pop parties. It's like she's been trapped in a fairytale for 5 years and just been released. Her trained-dancing background provides confident moves, although are more suited to the club than the ballet. For 'VooDoo' her mesmerizing drummer, Hans, provides a break beat; watching as it morphs into Xenomania meets Portishead. Previous single, 'The Wolf and I' whips past, before the scorching 'Son of Gun', on which she demonstrates the lost art of sampling your own voice while somehow projecting a singing face onto balloons. Summer festivals had best watch out, as this is not a set to leave for the bar, even a free bar. Her great asset is her voice, which never sounds twee; instead she flings herself between groove-led electro pop and midnight doubt, often within the same chorus. The defiant last song 'We Turn It Up' was apparently written 18 months ago, somewhat incongruously in Streatham, surely making it the best song ever written there. It's huge, with house piano, and military tattoo drumming from the erstwhile Hans reminiscent of Coldplay's 'Viva La Vide'. While there is the sense her whirlish presence would be throwing itself around her stage even if no one was watching, by the end of her set she clearly finds herself with another 70 fans.