The A-listers’ go-to vocalist previews tracks from his debut album in a powerful hometown gig
Can you be secretly famous? South London singer-producer Sampha Sisay is about as wildly successful as it is possible to be in music without actually being a household name or filthy rich.
In September, this shadowy star put out what is – incredibly – his first ever video, for a new track called Blood on Me. It’s about being hunted down in a nightmare, and when Sampha plays it tonight the lights bathe the whooping crowd in blood red. The track builds and builds, layering cello upon keyboards, upon live and processed beats. Sampha wanders out from behind a desk full of gear and comes to the lip of the stage, dancing around to a rhythm that digitally updates Soul II Soul with a paranoia that’s somehow very 2016. There are howls of approval.
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