Late night lullabies: Winding down with Skinny Pelembe
- Text by HUCK HQ
This week, Johannesburg-born and London-based artist Skinny Pelembe takes the decks for our Monday Mix series.
The singer, who signed to Brownswood Recordings back in January, made waves earlier this month with his debut single “Spit / Swallow” – a splash of mellow pop-psychedelia laced with soulful guitar and soft hip-hop beats. It’s a combination that has already helped prick the ears of Radio 1’s Huw Stevens and 6 Music’s Lauren Laverne, as well as Giles Peterson, who selected Pelembe to be part of his Future Bubblers programme in 2016.
“In a way, I centred this mix around one of my first tracks, ‘Baby Laxmi’” Pelembe tells Huck. “I made that the day my brother – in Indonesia at the time – told me my niece was born. There weren’t really any words to get across the feeling, so it ended up as an instrumental. The seven instrumental tracks leading up to [that track] on this mix are definitely sonic and stylistic references that I made when writing it, but are also all songs and beats that soundtracked formative moments in my own child and teenhood.”
“I guess I’ve put together a sort of lullaby mix,” he adds, jokily. “Probably more for myself than anyone else.”
Listen in full below:
Find out more about Skinny Pelembe, and his upcoming live shows, on his official website.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
Latest on Huck
Picking through the rubble: Glimpses of hope in the US election results
Clambering through the wreckage of the Harris campaign, delving deeper into the election results and building on the networks that already exist, all hope is not gone writes Ben Smoke.
Written by: Ben Smoke
US Election night 2024 in Texas
Photographer Tom “TBow” Bowden travelled to Republican and Democratic watch parties around Houston, capturing their contrasting energies as results began to flow in.
Written by: Isaac Muk
In photos: “Real life is not black and white” – Polaroid x Magnum Open Call winners
See pictures from the competition organised by two titans of contemporary photography, which called upon artists to reject the digitalisation and over-perfectionism of our modern world, technology and image-making.
Written by: Huck
In photos: Rednecks with Paychecks
‘American Diesel’ is a new photo series that looks at the people, places and culture behind the stereotypes of rural America.
Written by: Ben Smoke
How do you solve a problem like the music industry?
Beyond the Music is a conference and grassroots festival bringing together people from across the industry to try and grapple with the biggest issues facing it.
Written by: Ben Smoke
Laura Crane is waving goodbye to sexism in surfing
The first UK woman to surf the legendary big wave spot Nazarè, Crane is surfing the sea change in the sport and beyond.
Written by: Sam Haddad