Stephen Pennell on Call me Unique, the latest Brummie star in the making.
I’m as pasty-faced as they come but that doesn’t stop me from being a big fan of Birmingham’s black community. As a yout’ I had lots of black friends and loved the Handsworth Carnival, and between them those two factors engendered an obsession about all kinds of black music. Having said all that, this is not really about race or base instinct – it’s all about the bass and a remarkable explosion of inner-city local talent, bordering on a cultural phenomenon. Were it happening in Manchester, we’d never hear the last of it.
It’s been a while since I first heard a few episodes of the Queen’s Speech series by Lady Leshurr. It was at a fourth birthday party in Kingshurst, where the Lady herself hails from, and if anything, I was even more impressed than her young neighbours who were all jumping about like Kriss Kross.
As soon as I got home to the wi-fi I checked out the videos and it was soon apparent that she was yet another star in Birmingham’s remarkable ‘Great Black Female Artist’ firmament, worthy of taking her place alongside Joan Armatrading, Ruby Turner, Jaki Graham and Jamelia. The Queen of the Scene, as she is popularly known by ‘the Kidz’, is musically very different from the fellow Brummies mentioned, being one the leading lights of Grime, but she is part of an extraordinary group of contemporary black Birmingham females that threaten to eclipse the achievements of their B-town predecessors.
There’s the seriously talented Laura Mvula, who’s just followed up her brilliant Sing To The Moon debut with what promises to be an epic second album. If the first two tracks released are anything to go by, it has a huge sense of scale and ambition.
Slightly more under the radar but making big waves nevertheless is Mahalia, a 17 year-old from Erdington who’s already doing stuff like writing songs for Rudimental. Then there’s a clutch of no less talented artists like Sicnis, Elektric, Namiwa Jazz, Affie Jam and Lady Sanity who are all well worth searching out on you tube and soundcloud etc.
But the one who really stands out for me is an artist who goes by the name of Call Me Unique – and it’s an appropriate monicker, trust me. This girl has paid her dues – busking, pubs, clubs, festivals, support slots, solo acoustic, fronting a Hungarian jazz band (!) – and it shows. Her songs, already full of great lyrics and greater hooks, have been honed to perfection over years of live performances.
Her voice is tender and vulnerable one minute, soaring and savage the next – always powerful, even when she sings in little more than a whisper. Strident, strong and vulnerable in equal parts, she sings, plays guitar, raps and scats – it’s like Ella Fitzgerald grew up in Handsworth next-door to Steel Pulse listening to Amy Winehouse and The Streets.
Time To Love, a shimmering house stomper that might yet own the Mediterranean summer, is getting plenty of air-play and could be her big break. But it’s the wonderfully layered and textured brilliance of The Wife, Sholow, Money and The Stranger that fully showcase her amazing talent. She’s good. I mean Ella Fitzgerald, Amy Winehouse-type good. And it’s only because I read a review saying that her fans tend to go “a bit nutty” about her (guilty), that I’m not comparing her to Nina Simone and Billie Holliday. Yet.