„We are still mythical;
we are still
permanently trapped
somewhere between the heroic and the pitiful”

Kate Tempest, writer, musician

„Metrical rigour and adroit rhyming are not yet among her accomplishments. She has a pretty, cherubic face, framed by unbrushed red blonde hair and she speaks in a Caribbean lite patois that translates ‘those things’ into ‘dem fings’. This linguistic pattern has many fans among the elite. It’s seen as an emblem of barbarous innocence, of instinctive passions bred in the ghetto, of an unschooled and therefore superior creativity. And it particularly excites Arts Council grandees who believe their mission is to reach down to the uncivilised and protean human type. Which Tempest perfectly represents.”

About Kate Tempest’s poetry by Lloyd Evans playwright and sketch writer in good old British conservative magazine The Spectaor. He also says „She is also pessimistic to the point of superstition. She sees malevolence everywhere.”

from the album Let Them Eat Chaos on Fiction Records (UK). Her former records were released by Big Dada/ Ninja Tunes.

„Illusion, my darling, everything is just illusion. Believe me! Causeless bustle, but many of us think it is the order itself. Childish illusion. But the method, it is deserving.”

Alexander the Lame

29 years old British poet, playwright and rapper Kate Tempest‘s second Speedy Wunderground single is a duet with Londoner fellow Loyle Carner. In the Guts his acid jazzy sound blends with Kate’s hard, electronic beats. This is a special release because the label’s strict order of recordings: recording in the dark with smoke and lazers, need to use Swarmatron (a hand-built analogue synthesiser), recording time is one day, finish before midnight, no lunch break, mixing on the next day.

I can’t refrain to doing list Tempest’s main influences: Virginia Woolf, MF Doom, Samuel Beckett, John Coltrane, James Joyce, Roots Manuva, William Blake, Wu-Tang Clan, Milan Kundera, GZA, Knut Hamson, Mos Def, Yeats, Nina Simone, Carson McCullers, The Knife, Kafka, Scroobius Pip, and Confucius… Her first solo album „Everybody Down” was made together with the producer Dan Carey (Franz Ferdinand, Bat For Lashes, TOY, Django Django, Emiliana Torrini, The Kills, Kylie Minogue, Tame Impala, founder of Speedy Wunderground). It was released this year on Big Dada Records. „Alternative hip-hop” trio Sound of Rum was her previous project. It had a jazzy taste thanks to the drums and guitar.

Kate Tempest Euro Tour Nov-Dec. Vienna: 1 Dec

On Clapton Pound at dawn

The pond was calm
the sky was new
your voice was soft your lies were true.
You were me and I was you
and I was going blind with you.

You told me I reminded you
of Venus when I smiled at you,
or angels that go flying through
the paintings in the quietest rooms
of galleries. Renaissance girls,
all soft curves and floating curls.
We sat there and the light shone through
the leaves and we admired the view.

I loved you.
I had died for you
that night,
I’d closed my eyes
and through the gaps
I’d sought your silhouette.
I’d given up my mind for you.
We did what all our kind would do.

You sat beside me, finding new
ways to look away.
You kissed me. It was lighter fuel.
It burnt the night away.
And when I took my eyes off you
I saw that it was day.

More Speedy Wunderground’s recordings