Ben Khan
Ça s’agite sur les réseaux : sur son compte Soundcloud, Youth a dépassé les 400 000 vues. Le reste de l’ep, publié au même endroit ces jours-ci, n’est pas si loin derrière. Et si on a presque envie de s’excuser de commencer par des chiffres, ces derniers sont tout de même le signe de quelque chose, une excitation, une envie particulière, surtout que l’ep en question est le tout premier de ce jeune Anglais venu de Londres. La hype s’emparerait-elle doucement de Ben Khan ? Oui, un peu quand même.
Des deux côtés de l’Atlantique, tous les sites et blogs un peu curieux en ont parlé cette semaine. 1992 : c’est le titre de cet ep qui annonce la couleur. 1992 : année de naissance de Ben Khan, qui a donc grandi au son catchy des 90′s. De R. Kelly à Usher, de Aaliyah aux Destiny’s Child en passant par tous les autres qu’on oublie, ils ont tous bâti une mythologie du r’n’b – bras armé de la pop culture de l’époque – que n’a pas manqué d’intégrer toute une génération marchant désormais dans les pas tranquilles de James Blake.
© Les Inrocks
English
Ben Khan is an artist and producer from London.
In late 2013 a demo called ‘Drive (Part 1)’ surfaced online, a mesmerizing transmission of hushed falsettos, menacing bass throb, electronic rhythms and mangled blues. Unprompted, the track pricked the ears of tastemakers and casual listeners alike and made him the ‘Most Blogged Artist’ on the Hype Machine. Second track ‘Eden’ followed and won the accolade of ‘Best New Music’ on Pitchfork, further fuelling the surge of excitement and intrigue. Third installment ‘Savage’ was selected by Zane Lowe as his ‘Next Hype’ and greeted with enthusiasm across the board by now expectant fans, going straight to #1 in the Hype Machine tracks chart.
His first official release comes with ‘1992’ EP, released May 2014 on his own imprint Blessed Vice, through Dirty Hit. Featuring fully mixed and mastered versions of the aforementioned tracks as well as new single ‘Youth’, it’s a heady invitation to Ben Khan’s vibrantly escapist world, where swampy r&b, contemporary funk, bruised nocturnal soul and exuberant hip-hop brush up against evocative moods, personal lyrical narratives and an encompassing visual sensibility to create something new and audacious.
In approaching his craft, Ben is similarly informed by his cultural heritage – his father a Kashmir born artist specialising in raw design and textile, whose work appears as the backdrop toBen’s first public image – the ideas and aesthetics of Eastern art and philosophy, along with his experience growing up in London and love of Western film, melding evolving and often abrasively disparate elements to a vivid and dynamic whole. The self-made videos to his tracks offer further testament to this – visual collages channeling evocative imagery.