LISTEN: Anna B Savage – ‘Chelsea Hotel #3’

An intense, personal, exquisitely revealing celebration of female pleasure; London-based songwriter Anna B Savage has shared her latest single, ‘Chelsea Hotel #3’. Taken from her upcoming album which is due via City Slang later this year, the track is an affecting, powerful exploration of female desire, and how Savage has learned to dismiss the damaging tropes associated with it.

Fans of Leonard Cohen may be familiar with Savage’s opening lyric – “He was giving me head on my unmade bed” – as it’s paraphrased from Cohen’s track ‘Chelsea Hotel #2’. Over tentative guitar sounds, revealing lyrics, and through her measured, captivating vocals; Savage reveals how she learned to prioritize herself, and how female pleasure is not “secondary”. She subverts Cohen’s storytelling, re-writing the narrative to rid her feelings of shame and confusion.

Savage explores the meaning behind ‘Chelsea Hotel #3’ in more details: “‘Wank More’ was my 2016 New Year’s Resolution. It was part of my need to battle all the internalised bullshit I had ingested about women. I’ve spent the last few years actively unlearning things I spent my first twenty years passively being fed. Like how women are sexualised, but never allowed to be sexual, they are the object (sometimes even an object). It took me until 21 to start masturbating, even longer to realise that sex was also for me (groundbreaking, I know) and that I had agency and could and should ask for things. It’s wildly frustrating and sad. Out of these thoughts came ‘Chelsea Hotel #3’.”

“While it’s a naked nod to Cohen’s Janis Joplin in ‘Chelsea Hotel #2’, in my mind it’s an even bigger nod to Chris Kraus’s I Love Dick, a book which prompted me to be able to express myself in this way. The man in ‘Chelsea Hotel #3’ is a stand in for all men, and as I’m telling my story, here he plays the role of the passive pawn and “muse”, a like-for-like role reversal of how women have “inspired” men for centuries. The song is a groan of boredom for the role of passive, mute, muse women, and a scream for female autonomy and pleasure.”

Produced by William Doyle (East India Youth), ‘Chelsea Hotel #3’ marks the first new music for Savage since her 2015 EP, which caught the attention of Father John Misty and Jenny Hval (both of whom brought Savage out on European tours). Savage defiantly sings on her new track “I will learn to take care of myself”, and we fully believe that she will.

Watch the video for ‘Chelsea Hotel #3’ below, and follow Anna B Savage on Facebook & Spotify for more updates.

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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Get In Her Ears @ Notting Hill Arts Club w/ ESYA 30.11.19

Get In Her Ears returned to Notting Hill Arts Club to host another evening of alt-pop and alternative sounds, headlined by the multi-talented ESYA aka Ayse Hassan of Savages/Kite Base/180 db. South London duo Scrounge also shared the bill, along with spoken word artist & drummer Eilis Frawley.

The task of opening the night fell to Berlin-based Eilis, who delivered her unique cacophony of live drums, electronic elements and spoken-word lyrics with captivating precision. Performing singles ‘Strangers’ and ‘Illusions’ (both championed by Radio X’s John Kennedy, who was in attendance), her one woman show felt all the more powerful as many of her songs are informed by feminist beliefs that align perfectly with GIHE.

Scrounge took to the stage next to perform their raucous post-punk anthems. Lucy & Luke’s live sets are always a raw, urgent affair and we felt every bass drum beat of tracks ‘Badoom’ and ‘Purpose’ rattle through our bones. The duo released their EP Ideal, earlier this year and it’s barely left our ears since. They’re firm favourites of GIHE and their heavy guitar riffs and knockout drumming sat perfectly between Eilis & ESYA’s sets.

Headlining the night and performing her last London show of 2019, ESYA hypnotized us with her dark, brooding electronics. Filled with buzzing synth textures, direct vocals and pummelling beats, her songs flesh out the absurdities of our relationships and interactions with each other. Set highlights included ‘Nothing’, ‘Everything’ and brand new single ‘Blue Orchid’, all lifted from her recent EP, Absurdity of ATCG (II) – Emergent Form. She multi-tasked triggering synths, singing and plucking bass strings like a pro throughout her set.

Huge thanks to the sound engineer and staff at Notting Hill Arts Club.

Follow the bands on Facebook for more updates: ESYA, Scrounge, Eilis Frawley.

Photo Credit: Jon Mo

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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WATCH: ESYA – ‘Blue Orchid’

“I only came here for the meat” broods ESYA on her latest track ‘Blue Orchid’, lifted from her new EP Absurdity of ATCG (II) – Emergent Form, released in digital form today (15th Nov). Filled with buzzing synth textures, direct vocals and pummeling beats; the song fleshes out the absurdities of our relationships and interactions with each other.

ESYA (aka Ayşe Hassan of Savages/Kite Base/180dB) has been busy cutting her teeth on the solo electronic music circuit since the release of her debut EP, Absurdity Of Being, in 2018. The first of a trio of records, Absurdity of ATCG (I), followed shortly after, and her latest release Absurdity of ATCG (II) – Emergent Form, now completes her “wonky exploration” of alternate personas.

Laced with themes of acceptance and growth, ESYA’s music is a captivating blend of experimental electronics and urgent lyricism. ‘Blue Orchid’ extrapolates on these elements, as do the other six tracks on the new EP. They’re also underscored by a scientific idea, as ESYA explains further:

“This EP is about becoming the next version of yourself, about engaging in the process of coming into being, or becoming prominent…ATCG refers to the building blocks in human DNA, that set the foundations of what we will be before we take our first breath along with the absurdity we encounter in the life/society we are born into. The intention is to be honest, abrasive and direct, confronting the things we fear the most.”

We can’t wait for ESYA to headline our next gig at Notting Hill Arts Club on Sat 30th November. Tickets are available on DICE, and you can find all the event info here. Watch the video for ‘Blue Orchid’ below (directed by Alex Keegan), and grab a copy of ESYA’s new EP on vinyl here.

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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Gazelle Twin & NYX Electronic Drone Choir to perform ‘Deep England’ as part of EFG London Jazz Festival

A unique artist with razor sharp vision and uncompromising creativity; Gazelle Twin (aka Elizabeth Bernholz) has paired up with the NYX electronic drone choir once again to perform ‘Deep England’; a hair-raising transformation of her recent album Pastoral, which exhumes England’s “rotten past” and questions its uncertain future. The performance will take place on 20th November at Southbank Centre, as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival.

The collaboration was first commissioned and performed in December 2018 as part of a collaborative series at London’s Oval Space, but now Bernholz’s operatic voice will be displayed in all its glory alongside the equally as powerful voices of the NYX choir in the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Together, Bernholz and NYX use their voices, acoustic glitching, polyphonic overtone and ambient textures to bring Gazelle Twin’s Pastoral vision to life. The unique choir explore and test the limits of organic and synthetic modulation to explore the entire spectrum of collective female voice as an instrument. Their veiled Handmaid’s-Tale-esque silhouettes are a formidable sight on stage, so expect to be blown away by the power and the glory of their live show.

GIHE will be at the show, and we urge you to grab a ticket for it here.

For more information about EFG London Jazz Festival events, click here.

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