Fully grown and ready to blow: that's CocknBullKid, 2011. New Album & Live Dates

CocknBullKid, one of the most acclaimed young British artists to emerge in recent years, is releasing her hotly anticipated debut album ‘Adulthood’ on May 23. The album, co-written by Anita alongside a host of talents including the eccentric, electronic piano man Gonzales, who worked on half the record, is a full functioning pop odyssey that looks set to soundtrack the summer of 2011. In addition to Chilly, there are a couple of songs from Peter, Björn and John’s Peter Morén, as well as a co-write each from Joseph 'Metronomy' Mount and former All Saint, and one of Anita’s hero’s Shaznay Lewis. The album was produced by Liam Howe (Marina and the Diamonds / ex- Sneaker Pimps). Adulthood was recorded in London, Paris and Stockholm and was put together in Howe's Dalston home studio, surrounded by vintage synths, and in the cosy confines of Snap Studios in North London. With this brilliant debut, CocknBullKid has emerged from a creative cocoon with a suite of bright, breezy and ultra-colourful pop songs that exist at least five giant leaps away from the savvy, autobiographical electro tunes like 'On My Own' that got her a slot on Jools Holland even before she signed to Island Records. "The music I made at first was cool, but it was work in progress. There was only so far I could take it. I knew I was capable of more. I wanted to make music that reached people further than E9, or whatever the cool postcode is now." It's been worth the wait. The 25 year old Hackney resident, aka Anita Blay, is in possession of the most interesting, credible pop record of the year. It is a joyful celebration of everything in Blay's life: the teenage depression; the colourful confusion of her Catholic-turned-Pentecostal upbringing; her Ghanaian uncles and their hi-life band in Accra; and her insistence that her songs should turn negative emotions into high-saturation pop songs that will turn the FM dial kaleidoscopic when they inevitably perform a massive ambush of the charts. ‘Adulthood’ has lush strings, twinkling marimbas, steel drums and a brass band and an insatiable appetite for incessant hooks. It sounds like Kate Bush, were she dancing on cloud nine and insisting that you dance too. "I knew I wanted the album to be really musical. Everything now is so minimal and I wanted to make something I could listen to in ten years time. I didn't go to a gig for a year, I didn't read music mags and I didn't listen to anything new. I plugged into The Buggles, Enya, The Beach Boys and The Polyphonic Spree and listened to how they created a sound. And that was it." Ask Blay about her influences and you're as likely to hear her talk about The Knife ("Deep Cuts was a revelation to me… really weird but really pop"); the entire 1983-1998 Madonna catalogue and Morrissey. "I will never fall out of love with Morrissey. He got me through those awful adolescent years and he could articulate things that a lot of people felt."
Fully grown and ready to blow: that's CocknBullKid, 2011. - ‘Adulthood’ Tracklisting:
Adulthood
Cocknbullkid
Hold on To your misery
Yellow
One Eye closed
Distractions
Bellyache
Mexico
Asthma Attack
Hoarder (The House That Heartbreak Built)
Dumb
I Deserve It
CocknBullKid plays the following shows:
01/5 Camden Crawl
14/5 The Great Escape Brighton
19/5 Stag & Dagger
28/5 Evolution Festival Newcastle
05/8 Underage Festival
06/8 Field Day Festival
www.myspace.com/cocknbullkid -www.cocknbullkid.com
CocknBullKid ‘Adulthood’ Album Moshi Moshi / Island Records May 23rd
WHAT THE PAPERS SAYS
‘The deal-clincher in Blay’s talent bank is her ability to convey relish, menace, a desire to experiment and the sense that her work is always teetering on the edge of chaos, all set to melodies to die for. Watch her go.’ Sunday Times Culture
‘CocknBullKid is the Candi Staton for the MacBook generation…’ NME
‘ – a serious one to watch’ The Sun