Women are still massively underrepresented in creative industries, and the most frustrating thing about this is how often we see straight, white men, who feel threatened, try to dismiss any female who is becoming successful as only being famous for her looks. It’s an obvious, easy and pathetic sexualisation that has been going on throughout our history as a way to prevent women from being seen as talented in the same way as men. Clear bullshit. Which is why it’s great to see it when women are consistently killing it.
In the last few days I went to two very different events that both had a core focus on female brilliance. Last Friday, Boiler Room threw a night at Electric Brixton with a line up including DJ Storm, SHERELLE and Sicaria Sound in an all ladies line up. The vibe was refined to still encapsulate the Boiler Room aesthetic without the usual intimacy. There wasn’t any recording, and the crowd was huge, but a magnified version of the huddle round the DJ booth held the atmosphere on the stage, as the rest of the theatre curved round it. Musically, Drum and Bass was of course persistently the focus, and Sherelle's set kept these hyper speed melodies goings and going, not letting the energy down for a second. There was one moment when she held a drop back unexpectedly and everyone started losing it, playing around with the power behind building hype like this. There was a lot of pop songs sped up to such BPMs that they're almost unrecognisable, which gives you a little exclamation mark feeling when it suddenly hits you what it is.
DJ Storm was similarly captivating with the audience surround her, and there's something gracefully cool about the way she hangs over the decks, dropping in banger after banger as if it's nothing. The key thing that stood out to me is how gritty and real the attitude felt the entire time I was there. Electronic music is heavily male-dominated to the point where unless girls play sets that are dark and heavy, they can't be taken seriously. But there was no sense of impersonation here, like anything was trying to be proven. They owned the roughness unapologetically, but femininity was not something to be hidden from the sound, it was an immutable element of it.
Way on the other end of my musical interests, I saw Mahalia at the Roundhouse last night. I haven't actually seen a solo live singer like that for ages, so it was nice to enjoy that focus and her speeches. Respect for telling everyone to f*ck Boris (today is the last day you can register to vote, do it here), but my favourite moment was actually how she described giving up on her dreams to make it in music at 18. She went back to her home town, handed out CVs for a couple weeks and then she thought, there's no way I can live my life not writing music, and wrote 'Sober' straight after. I love a good 'never give up' story, and was loving the goosebumps during this one. Her voice is tantalisingly smooth over a live band, and she has a really sick, playful energy onstage, running around the stage and giving the occasional cheeky hand gestures.
Opening with tracks like 'Hide Out' and 'Do Not Disturb' was great to get everyone excited and involved from the get go, and 'What Am I?' saw her treacle falsetto tones complimented by these sunset beams of light pouring out from the stage. In the same way Mahalia bounded around the stage, the focus of the performance would also. 'Good Company' featured a sick guitar solo, 'Simmer' broke into the first chorus with a dramatic pitch black, and a number of the collaborating artists from her album joined her onstage. She embodied confidence, and throughout the two hours that was the clear message she wanted to put out to the world; whatever you do, have confidence in who you are, particularly aimed at fellow women of colour.
In terms of women's recorded music, I want to mention Shanti Celeste's recent release 'Tangerine', which interlocks ambience and rapid rhythms in a bright and optimistic chain of tracks. As such, I've featured two of the songs on this week's playlist update. That's one of several album releases that have caught my eye in the last few weeks; Blood Orange, under his real name Devonté Hynes released a stunning album of mixed percussion which recalls the Minamilism of Steve Reich and Terry Riley to me. Roland Tings and Max Cooper both also released highly emotive electronic works which you should definitely check out if you have time. All of these are featured on the playlist, so have a listen to get a quick taster of everything. Thanks for reading this week, and don't forget to register vote if you're reading this on the day - today is the deadline!
Support the amazing women in your life xxx
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