More about: sorryBBC Radio 6 Music Festivalhak bakerbeabadoobee
As part of BBC Radio 6 Music Festival
Tom Robinson promises us the “cream of the creamiest” in this warm-up for the 6 Music Festival at The Roundhouse’s Sackler Space. Auntie’s showcase for regional talent finally settles in the capital, for the first time. It’s the turn of BBC London’s Jess Iszatt to push out three acts that put down roots in her consciousness, into the nation’s glare.
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John Peel’s death in 2004 removed a vital conduit for new bands to get themselves airtime, which BBC Music Introducing has since sought to fill. Tonight, it's Hak Baker, Beabodoobee and Sorry chosen from the mountain of material sent in.
East Ender and former grimer, Hak Baker, has been busy cultivating a one-man genre since 2016. His self-styled G-folk is a captivating blend of acoustic rhythms, subtly entwined with riffs of reggae, soul and rap in songs about “the things I’ve seen and felt, what made me and what hurt me.” He’s a disarming stage presence whose talk walks into his tales of urban, working class life; so that only passages are punctuated with melodic singing. His cockney brogue is a unique flavour in the folk canon. ‘Like It or Lump It’ and its ingenious bass chatter is the stand out. With Babylon released, and an appearance on Later with Jools, his profile is likely to rise.
Nineteen year-old Beabadoobee, has been touring with The 1975. “I slept on a ferry today. I stink,” she recounts. Her four-piece band play trucking, standard indie beneath her ethereal voice, in a sound that could lose its way in its own wash, if she weren’t so canny. Signed to Dirty Hit, and with a clutch of EPs to her name, she has already scooped an NME Under the Radar award this year.
‘Space Cadet’ from 2019’s EP of the same name is a highlight, as is the homage ‘She Plays Bass’; her own bassist not unlike Tina Weymouth. She changes guitar with each breakneck song to keep the train locomoting, rather than pausing for a re-tune, and seems to be rolling to a bright future.
Sorry are too impatient to record, releasing the mixtapes of their demos as soon as they’re laid down. They’ve seemed terminally shy about recording an album...however their debut 925 is finally due for release this month on Domino. They eschew social media and self-promotion and simply get on with crafting the music. The foundations are indie, but it’s an electrifying vaudeville; wilfully perverse, with dystopian tweaks and mutterings on synth or sax. In the spirit of 925’s ‘More’ we want that delivery.
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