BABii - HiiDE
A brilliantly brave debut.
Ah, Margate! Home of Dreamland, the Shell Grotto and, of course the Turner Contemporary. And to a growing cultural and artistic community who take inspiration from the same rich sunsets observed by the great 'JMW', and possibly the unmade beds and neon lights remembered by Tracey Emin. Now, in 2019, we might add another name to the list, that of musician Daisy Warne, aka BABii.
I'm not a huge fan of stylised spelling – it seems to have become almost de rigeur for emerging artists in recent years, but in the case of HiiDE, the calculated edginess of these nine slices of shard-like electro pop almost demand something more cutting to match the detached honesty of the material.
For this is an album about secrets and hiding, and whilst on first listening you think of artists like FKA Twigs and Grimes, you quickly discover that tracks like PHANTOM, VOLCANO and POiiSON are dealing with feelings of an intensely personal nature. 'I fell in love with a CARNiiVORE', and 'I lost my breath to a PHANTOM ex' leave you in no doubt from where the inspirations are sourced. The sampled sounds of breaking glass on opener SYMMETRii are another clue that this work has been cleverly peppered with allegoric reference.
A brilliantly brave debut.
8/10
