Kitsch 'n' Sync

Monday, 25th July 2016 09:43 - by Moosh

Following nicely on from my first musical blog offering, it was MNEK who brought me next to Brayton Bowman. Admittedly it did take a number of mentions of Bowman before I accepted the bait - that was less to do with me jumping when someone says jump and more to do with me preferring to set aside some quality time to do a little research on Brayton Bowman and take time to digest whatever he had thrown out there.

My initial investigation led me to Bowman’s SoundCloud page, and at the time, he had given the world his initial ‘Here Now’ EP. Before I clicked play, to be honest, I didn’t know what I was expecting to hear from this American white male with ginger locks, but I figured if MNEK was shouting about him then there must be something special about him. So I clicked play on ‘Jaywalk’. I was impressed. In fact, I was more than impressed, and that was just one song. The rest of the EP doesn’t disappoint either and as far as debuts go, I think this is one of the boldest debuts that I have come across from an unknown artist. I’m a harsh critic at best but I have only positive things to say about the Here Now EP. And strangely enough, I was hooked on the first listen, no second listen required – someone really has to be doing something special to NOT require a second listen. While it’s difficult to fit Bowman into a particular genre, I feel it’s more appropriate to label him as an entire artist, filed under ‘Kitsch’. I use the term kitsch in a positive way, to collectively describe his music, style and personality and I would happily file him alongside other artists in this category, like VV Brown and Roisin Murphy.

Back to Here Now, it’s an EP which oozes honest lyrics, stories, flirtations with syncopated vocals, and sonically reminds me of stuff by Jamiroquai, which is very much a YES. Since then Bowman has released a further EP – The Update – alongside refixing and rehashing various songs by other artists – some of these aren’t obvious cut and pasted resung vocals and you can tell just how much effort and thought has gone into some of the mashups for them to sound complete in their own way. My other faves by Bowman include ‘Play Me’ and his new song ‘What’s Really Good’. He also found his way as a guest vocalist on The Magician’s song ‘Shy’ which will help to ease him gently into a more mainstream audience. I would very much like to see Bowman feature as a guest vocalist with Clean Bandit because on paper, I think both parties would work well together, so can we make this happen please?

As is probably the case with most new artists trying to find a foothold in a world already saturated with music, and where even Madonna can barely make the Top 40 anymore, I hope Bowman maintains the focus on making good honest music which makes him happy because we can hear when it’s honest and heartfelt and will respond accordingly. I recall from an episode of Ugly Betty when she had a blog, and she found that although it didn’t have much readership, she was able to change at least one person’s view of the world via her blog, and that made it all worthwhile. Similarly, any artist, big or small, should consider themselves as someone with the power to change someone’s life for the better through the medium of music and I, for one, know that if I’m feeling a bit downbeat, then I can always reach for ‘Jaywalk’ and I’m good again. We all have a choice and the ability to make an impression on this planet – as long as we aim for a good impression, then that is our success. So onward and upward Mr Bowman!

Related links:

https://soundcloud.com/brayton

 https://twitter.com/braytonbowman

The Writer's views are their own, not a representation of London South East's. No advice is inferred or given. If you require financial advice, please seek an Independent Financial Adviser.