Natasha Kmeto - 'Crisis' [album stream]

Portland-based producer and vocalist Natasha Kmeto has just made her debut LP ‘Crisis’ available to stream in full via Hype Machine. Heavy on the finger-clicks and low on just about everything else, this pared-back perfectionist approach to slightly askew, slightly awkward R&B is unlike anything else around right now; Kmeto has an aggressively up-front way of singing that confronts the listener at the same time as it pulls them in closer, and her skeletal production style works to draw attention to her eccentric, alive beats.

At several crucial points – like when the track Morning Sex peters out to reveal remarkably naked, human sounding finger-clicks, or when Kmeto sneers “Don’t I make it good? / Don’t I make it good for you?” in Take Out – the personality and tense sexuality of this album are laid bare. Some of Kmeto’s synth stylings, particularly at the opening of Idiot Proof, bear a startling resemblance to the theme tune of the accident-prone UK hospital drama Casualty, but elsewhere this LP is pure, tightly wound bodily energy; stream it below, and let it get under your skin.