aaamusic | On 07, Sep 2011

EMIKA ALBUM NEWS – LONDON ALBUM LAUNCH / NEW VIDEO + SINGLE / US TOUR with AMON TOBIN
http://www.emika.co.uk/
* ‘EMIKA’ Debut album out 3rd October (Ninja Tune)
* Emika will bring her unique live show to CAMP, London on 5th October with Pedestrian supporting to launch album. In conjunction with Black Atlantic. Tickets £7.50.
* The video has just gone live for “Professional Loving” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxXS6WbO1HY
* Confirmed for Low End Theory + US tour support to Amon Tobin http://ninjatune.net/artists/events/emika

Emika returns with the last warm up single for her forthcoming, self-titled debut album. A double-A of obession and alienation, of getting lost in the music and struggling to find your way back, the anglo-czech artist based in Berlin shows once again that there can be more to being a singer-songwriter than an acoustic guitar and a winsome smile.

First track “Pretend” is, in Emika’s own words, “about all sides of fakeness, disbelief, dancing on the head of a pin. It begins with a synth I made to feel like a heartbeat, and ends with psychotic hi-hats playing a melody which will come get you while you sleep.” Really, it’s hard to describe it better than that. “Professional Loving,” on the other hand, is about the way in which the music industry uses “friendship” as a form of control, the fragile vocal delivered over a powerful surge of bass and oscillating keys.

Remixes come from all quarters. Berlin experimentalists Brandt Brauer Frick turn in a stripped back 8 minute mix, operating on the borders between classical music and techno. Kyle Hall’s techno is, of course, born from the wellspring of Detroit and his take on “Pretend” reflects this. DJ Rashad’s more frenetic interpretation, on the other hand, brings us closer to a Chicago take on witch-house.

In an age of idnetikit pop starlets Emika has always stood out from the pack. A hugely talented producer who uses her voice and her own obsessions to craft something unique.

“Emika” Album PR
Today‘s modern day composer can work in many different areas of sound with one click of a mouse. This is the single most influential factor in Emika’s artistic development. Thrilled by the means and ways technology offers to shape song writing, she chose a software studio as her instrument throughout her musical education and beyond. While Emika’s approach to composition evolved, she worked with Berlin’s legendary engineer Rashad Becker to craft the unique sound of her record. Already highly-rated by everyone from Mary-Anne Hobbs to Thom Yorke and covered by media outlets as varied Resident Advisor and The Guardian, the release of this, her eponymous debut album, is awaited with considerable anticipation.

Emika is inspired by the roots techno culture because “it was a movement with sound and dancing at its very core. It was not about idols or stars, it was about sound and people coming together to dance and feel free.” She’s inspired by dubstep from Bristol and London since 2004 when she lived in these cities because of its meditational bass vibes: “originally it was deep spiritual music made by kids for kids.” These two influences twine together with her love of the great universal pop song, her abilities as a song writer, a classically-trained pianist and a singer, to make something completely unique.

Asked to name an inspiration from the past, Emika turns to Delia Derbyshire, the legendary Radiophonic Workshop composer who came up with the original Dr Who theme, “not so much for the sounds she made as rather for her questing spirit, it inspires me as i go ahead mapping my own musical realm”

Tracklist
1. 3 Hours
2. Common Exchange
3. Professional Loving
4. Be My Guest
5. Count Backwards
6. Double Edge
7. Pretend
8. The Long Goodbye
9. FM Attention
10. Drop The Other
11. Come And Catch Me
12. Credit Theme

“Challenging the definition of electronic music, using otherwordly melodies and tight productions to stomp through any notion of genre.” Stool Pigeon
“Emerges at a crossroads between the XX’s spacious pop and Scuba’s snow crunch dubstep.” Tom Lea of Fact in Music Week
“Creepy, seductive and brimming with bass.” Guardian (First Sight)
“One of 2010’s most compelling female talents has arrived.” DJ Magazine
“Highly rated newcomer. PJ Harvery donning the creepy mask and Portishead in purgatory come to mind.” Daily Mirror
“Really is the most perfect of things.” Drowned In Sound
“Drop the Other can already be seen as one of 2010’s most auspicious debut’s.” National Student
“A Seductive Gem.” Fact
“Simultaneously confounding, bizarre and utterly beautiful.” Metro
“Intriguing.” Clash
“Digital Ice Queen.” Mixmag