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Much Adu about Joan
LEILA ADU stands triumphant with a wooden sword and a semi-serious stare. It's just a static MySpace picture yet, eerily, the pseudo-historical dress, the intense gaze and curious commentary invest the flat image with an unfathomable third dimension.
It's a fitting portrait. Adu's music is cryptic, edgy, oscillating between serious commentary and flippant experimentation. Her latest album, Dark Joan, is a take on the story of Joan of Arc, who led France to victory in the Hundred Years War through what she described as divine guidance.
There's little in terms of divinity in Adu's title track but it opens with aggressive offence: "Didn't you think I would come back for you all," she sings, to a stormy assault of keys.
She said: "Dark Joan is a tale about an urban Joan of Arc.
"I was living in Brixton at the time when I wrote this song. The inspiration of this song was the popular image of Joan d'Arc superimposed on contemporary urban London.
"However, it isn't a literal representation of her life in any way. The song also has images of strength and battle, both male and female, through art and other means. The end of the song is calls on our internal super-powers of compassion to battle the materialistic energy of these times."
She sings: "Lord why show me angels as a child / Then grow up and make me someone mild? / I can't help you all but I'll do my best / All the shining knights are having a rest."
"I'm tired of looking around and seeing what is around here," Adu says, admitting that her bemusement concerns the frightening abundance of celebrity magazines in a materially-driven society.
The premise is echoed throughout much of the album: "It's about being grateful in these materially-driven times," she says.
That is reflected in the line "No time to waste in your potential in the malls."
She extends her attack on consumerism to the sensation-seeking aspect of British media, referring to its obsession with celebrity drug habits,
"I would be more interested if they wrote about him making home-made cookies, for example," she said, referring to Pete Doherty's well-documented drug habit, "The media make meat out of everyone. He's just a nice sensitive, artistic young guy."
And she would know, she travelled to Moscow with Doherty with the British Council as part of an exchange programme.
This week, Adu brings her broad-ranging folk-pop to Sheffield as part of a UK tour with fellow FRIZZ record artist Art Terry. The tour also celebrates the release of Dark Joan, her first official international release.
"All my other records have been self-released," she says.
The album's hard to categorise but whets every appetite from brooding pop to abstract electro. Songs sway between lo-fo slow trip hop with electronica undertones – as in the mellow track Answerphone – and rich piano-led melodies.
Such contrast reflects Adu's musical background – the London-born, New Zealand-bred singer songwriter has appeared with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and is in the process of composing an electronic arrangement for a chamber group.
"With the chamber music I have to write the music down and then put it into a software notation programme."
American-born, London-based artist Art Terry is also pushing genre boundaries. A black musician brought up on a diet of funk, Motown and soul, Terry is equally quick to point out that punk, English folk and post-punk, musical theatre and 60s pop are influences.
Despite being trained in the jazz tradition, he says: "A lot of rock musicians have a macho approach to music – people thought I would be just into black music but I'm as influenced by the Beatles as I am by James Brown."
His debut EP, Anutha Kinda Brotha, has been twenty years in the making. Although he says: "Some songs only took a couple of weeks to write. Songs are very literate. There's a story in every song – each has a narrative and a plot."
Lyrical themes take inspiration from characters Terry has encountered in his 50-year existence in London and LA.
Playa is about a preacher who has a moral struggle when he discovers women are attracted to him. The song's in the style of African American gangster rap but peppered with French horns and acoustic arrangements. The combination of disparate styles is Terry's trademark – one he established with his London-based radio show called Resonance, in which he plays alternative African American music.
But the qualities associated with African American music such as rhythm, soul and funk, aren't restricted to funk, jazz and blues. "I like taking something that's not funky and finding something funky in it – like Nico singing Chelsea Girls."
Art Terry brings plays his orchestral pop alongside Leila Adu's melodic pop this Saturday (October 31) at the Rude Shipyard, London Road.
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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