Comprised of Sam Crowe (keyboards), a member of The Cinematic Orchestra and the backing bands of Matthew Herbert and Rosie Lowe; Jonathan Harvey (bass), a bandmate of Crowe’s in The Cinematic Orchestra and a member of the backing bands for Ethan Johns and Bill Laurence; and Frida Touray (vocals), a member of Lianne La Havas’ backing band, London, UK-based trio Native Dancer have developed a growing national and international profile for a sound that possess elements of hip-hop, trip-hop, jazz, indie electro pop and soul paired with slick production. Not only has the British trio’s debut EP, EP Vol. 1 drawn favorable comparisons to the likes of Hiyatus Kaiyote, The Cinematic Orchestra and Meshell Ndgeocello, the trio has received airplay on Gilles Peterson‘s BBC 1 Radio show and BBC Radio 6 and several internationally recognized blogs and radio stations; in fact, Stamp The Wax breathlessly described Native Dancer as “the new troubadours of psychedelic soul.”
Building upon those early successes the London-based trio played at Gaeta Jazz Festival in Italy and have opened for the likes of Liv Warfield, Mark Guilliana’s Beat Music among others last year and they hope to continue upon that with their soon-to-be released EP, EP, Vol. II slated for an April 30 release. The material on the EP reportedly focuses on the human condition with songs about the struggles of the human condition — namely, love, compassion and the nature of death among others. And as you’ll hear on the EP’s latest single “In Clouds,” the trio pairs Touray’s effortlessly soulful and expressive vocals with glitchy and stuttering four-on-the-floor drumming, swirling, ambient electronics, twinkling synths before quietly fading out in a hauntingly sparse arrangement — while sonically, the song manages to sound as though it drew from BRAIDS’ Flourish//Perish, Portishead and others but with a ethereal nature.
The recently released music video is split between footage of the trio performing the song in a studio and dramatically artistic shots of the band’s frontwoman in the lowlands with colored smoke bombs, and as a result it emphases the brooding moodiness of the song.
