FEATURE:
Vinyl Corner
Sampha - Process
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I was going to include…
SOPHIE’s OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES in Vinyl Corner, but it is out of stock at the moment and the only versions available are expensive – and I have promised a more affordable vinyl for this week! I am keen to include SOPHIE’s album soon because, as she passed recently, it is fitting to pay tribute. Instead, I am going to look at Sampha’s 2017 debut, Process. It won the Mercury Prize that year and, as we await a follow-up, I would encourage people to grab Process on vinyl. I will bring in a couple of reviews for the remarkable album in a bit. Rough Trade provide some background regarding Sampha:
“Sampha releases his highly-anticipated debut album. Titled Process, the ten track album is released on via Young Turks, featuring the singles Timmy’s Prayer and Blood On Me. Since the release of his debut Sundanza EP in 2010 and 2013’s Dual EP, Sampha has quietly but assuredly become one of the UK’s most enigmatic and respected artists. Still just twenty seven years old, he has lent his vocal, production and songwriting talents to a range of stand out releases, from UK contemporaries such as FKA twigs, Jessie Ware and SBTRKT to world-renowned superstars like Drake, Kanye West and, most recently this year, on Frank Ocean’s Endless and Solange’s A Seat At The Table albums. Now it’s time for Sampha to tell his own story and Process, produced by Sampha himself and Rodaidh McDonald, is set to be his defining musical statement”.
I think that Sampha’s next album will have some elements of Process, but he will move in new directions. I look at artists like him as being really bright lights of the future. The thirty-two-year-old Londoner Sampha Lahai Sisay has such a remarkable voice and songwriting vision! I am wondering how his upcoming music will sound and whether, like fellow Mercury-winning artists such as Michael Kiwanuka, he will take a big leap forward. In 2017, Sampha spoke with FACT about the process behind Process:
“He describes a “weird sort of outer-body experience” in learning to detach himself from self-doubt when making Process and thinking about its merit. “I would listen to other music and think, ‘what if my album is shit?'” he’s able to laugh now. “Anxiety has definitely been something I’ve struggled with, a presence in my life that has over time been responsible for me not doing certain things, or being overly cautious when doing them. Not going to the doctors or dentist ‘cos you’re more scared of what they could say than the reality. I get anxious a lot. But music in itself, and playing good shows, they help.”
After a busy summer that’s included massive shows at Coachella and Glastonbury, the singer is now looking ahead to the future, and what lies beyond a debut album that’s currently joint favorite at 6/1 to win this year’s Mercury Music Prize award for the best British album of the last 12 months, up there with Stormzy’s Gang Signs and Prayer.
“There’s a lot of things that came up while making this debut record where I thought ‘wouldn’t it be interesting to do this, to do that.’ Now I guess I can try to bring those things to life, compositionally and in terms of song structure and storytelling, trying to get a bit deeper,” he says. For fans who grew to love Sampha when he first emerged five years ago, it was a long journey to Process. Will his next release have an equally long gestation period? “You know, I really just want to connect to what I’m making, which sort of dictates it a little bit. But I definitely want to put out more music. I’m not sure how long it will be till my next album, but I don’t want to wait to release more music. I want to be a bit more free.”
Spoken like a man with a weight off his shoulders”.
There is something satisfyingly tight and focused about Process. At ten tracks and forty minutes, it is an album that never outstays its welcome and leaves you very satisfied. I think Process is balanced so you get strong songs in both halves - Blood on Me and (No One Knows Me) Like the Piano are in the first half; Under and Incomplete Kisses are in the second half. The fact Sampha wrote all the songs himself (Kanye West is credited on Timmy’s Prayers) and co-produced with Rodaidh McDonald means there is this truth and sense of self that could have been distilled by other writers and producers.
The reviews for Process have been hugely positive. I want to bring in AllMusic’s review of, in my mind, one of the finest albums of 2017:
“The categorically elusive Sampha arrived in 2010 with a co-headlined SBTRKT collaboration and a solo EP, then became known more for supporting roles as a songwriter, producer, vocalist, and keyboardist. After he recorded with fellow Brits Lil Silva and Jessie Ware, his commercial presence was magnified by Drake, whose Nothing Was the Same featured him on a couple tracks. Within a few years, Sampha had collected credits on works by a slew of mainstream artists, including Beyoncé, Kanye West, Frank Ocean, and Solange, as he assisted comparatively marginal but significant figures like FKA Twigs and Bullion. He also inched toward the completion of Process, an artful and accessible debut full-length. Admirably, the album is without opportunistic reciprocal collaborations, unless one inconspicuous Kanye West co-composition counts. It's largely a solitary and intensely personal effort, co-produced by Rodaidh McDonald, ranging from placid piano ballads to urgent electro-soul. All the narratives, expressed in anguished, repentant, and haunted terms, befit a voice that always sounds as if it's on the brink of choking back tears. Sampha's vocals can be an acquired taste, but they're instantly identifiable and heartfelt. They're all the more compelling when detailing interpersonal ruptures, drawing imagery like "I took the shape of a letter, slipped myself underneath your door," or in a state of agitation, "gasping for air."
The album reaches its most stirring point in "Kora Sings," built on an alternately serene and jittery production, over which Sampha sings to his dying mother, trailing off after "You don't know how strong you are."
None of it is particularly light. Sampha's exquisite melodies and detailed productions nonetheless make all the references to longing, disturbed sleep, injurious heat, and shattered glass go down easy. "Reverse Faults," sparkling low-profile trap with a dizzying combination of smeared glints and jutting background vocals, might be the best display of Sampha's skill set. Another marvel is the hurtling, breakbeat-propelled "Blood on Me," its last 40 seconds juiced with some of the nastiest synthesized bass since Alexander O'Neal's "Fake." In a way, this all makes the previous output seem merely preliminary”.
If you have not experienced Sampha then make sure you go and buy Process. If not, then stream the album, as it is a remarkable work! I have been dipping in and out of the album since it came out in 2017. Not that there is expectation and too much pressure on Sampha to follow such a sensational debut, but there are going to be many eyes his way in the coming months.
I want to finish off by sourcing from a review from Pitchfork. They understood the depth and personal importance of Process:
“In a way, Process feels like a concept album on which Sampha rediscovers himself. The musician’s mother was diagnosed with cancer the same year Sundaza came out, and as her primary caregiver, he naturally focused his attention on her well-being. Now, he’s attempting to reconnect with his core while coping with despair. In the past, he’d mix his voice to fit within the instrumental; on Process, he makes it the focal point. Co-produced with Rodaidh McDonald, *Process *brings to mind James Blake while nodding to mainstream hip-hop. On “Under,” in particular, Sampha utilizes a sleek trap beat.
Even the album’s most upbeat tracks are shaded with tension. “You’ve been with me since the cradle,” Sampha recalls on “Kora Sings,” presumably referring to his mom. “You’ve been with me, you’re my angel, please don’t you disappear.” With “Blood on Me,” the album’s second single, the vocalist sings through heavy breaths, seemingly haunted by his own insecurities. It addresses the fear of moving forward after personal trauma, and for a quiet soul like Sampha, it also speaks to the panic of navigating the world by himself. “I’m on this road now,” he exclaims. “I’m so alone now/Swerving out of control now”.
I am going to end there. I am also going to go and listen to Process again. It is an album that left a mark on me when it was released. Four years since it came along, Process continues to amaze and move me. I don’t think there are any firm plans or dates when it comes to Sampha’s second album. Until then, sit back and enjoy…
HIS incredible debut.