King Krule - EP

iTunes Review

King Krule (a.k.a. Archy Marshall) is a freckled London teenager with an impressive Gene Vincent–like swoop of red hair. He started recording lo-fi music in his bedroom under the name Zoo Kid; then he threw the songs on the Internet, perhaps never suspecting they’d become buzzworthy. His wonderfully unique, imperfect voice is vibrant and evocative, rich with both dramatic skill and affection for the written word. King Krule reflects avowed inspiration by artists as disparate as Chet Baker, Ian Drury (why bury an East London accent?), and Gang Starr, and this debut EP packs a lot of ideas into its five tracks. Marshall’s songs (spare, reverb-wrapped, and vaguely unsettling at times) hint at dub-step, soul, hip-hop, and jazz. “The Noose of Jah City” unspools at a languid pace with little more than a few glimmering electric piano notes, faint guitar, and a cool jazz snare, until the midsection morphs (almost unnoticed) into the sound of a muted air-raid siren. A few tracks feel like sketches for bigger things, and building on King Krule should be rewarding for artist and audience both.