Roisin Murphy to end the week – in concert from the BBC6 Music Festival at The Roundhouse in London on March 7, 2020 and preserved for posterity by BBC 6 Music.
Via Wikipedia:
Roisin Murphy first became known in the 1990s as one half of the pop duo Moloko alongside the English musician Mark Brydon. After the breakup of Moloko, Murphy embarked on a solo career and released her debut solo album Ruby Blue (2005), which she wrote and produced with the experimental musician Matthew Herbert, to critical praise. Her second solo album Overpowered was released in 2007.
In 2015, after an eight-year hiatus that was sporadically interrupted by non-album singles, side projects and guest appearances on other artists’ records, Murphy released her third solo album Hairless Toys, which was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and Ireland’s Choice Music Prize. The following year, she released her fourth album Take Her Up to Monto. In 2018, she released four 12-inch singles in collaboration with producer Maurice Fulton. Murphy released her fifth and sixth solo albums Róisín Machine and Hit Parade, which received critical acclaim, in 2020 and 2023, respectively.
Róisín Murphy has drawn considerable attention and praise for her eccentric, imaginative fashion style. Electronic Beats described Murphy as “this adolescent century’s true art-pop queen”; and said “her sensuous and ominous output is scattered across various genres and moods” and “her reputation for sporting avant-garde couture into a place among fashion’s elite”.
AllMusic described Murphy as “a purveyor of adventurous, omnivorous pop that blended influences as far-flung as disco and hot jazz”. The Australian publication OutInPerth called her “Ireland’s queen of the avant-garde”. According to Drowned in Sound‘s Giuseppe Zevolli, Murphy has “merged pop, house, and disco with an avant-garde sensibility and a stunning, shape-shifting visual output that never ceases to provoke”. Critic Mark Fisher, writing in the UK music magazine Fact, located her music in a glam rock lineage that includes Roxy Music, Grace Jones, and the New Romantics, noting Murphy’s attention to the cultivation of artifice and persona. Fisher wrote: “Róisín Murphy is pop’s exiled princess of glam [rock]. She represents a confection—of disco and art, of sensuousness and intelligence, of sumptuous superficiality and existential anxiety—that once seemed inevitable, but which has now become all but impossible.”
The sound of Moloko’s early work drew on electronic and trip hop influences before moving to a more organic sound. According to Elizabeth Vincentelli of The New York Times: “it was only after [Moloko’s] breakup that Murphy truly refined her trademark fusion of glossy sheen and playful experimentation”. Murphy’s diverse solo work includes collaborations with experimental jazz composer Matthew Herbert and electronic producer Eddie Stevens, drawing on house music, ballroom culture and avant-garde electronica. Murphy has a contralto vocal range, which has been described as distinctive, smoky and jazzy. Heather Phares said Murphy’s voice “combin[es] a wild variety of voices and textures, from impassively chilly to gorgeously lilting to gleefully offbeat”. The first performers that left an impression on Murphy were Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth and Kim Deal from Pixies. Iggy Pop also inspired her with his “energy—and he’s a giver”.[76] Murphy stated her biggest influences were Siouxsie Sioux, Grace Jones and Björk. She was also inspired by Italian female singers such as Mina and Patty Pravo for the way they owned the stage when they moved. Murphy described her performances as “a bit like The Rocky Horror Picture Show”; according to Jad Salfiti of Financial Times, her audiences “dress up to mirror Murphy’s own spectacular fashions”. Salfiti also said of Murphy: “[her] clothes amplify her personality: exhibitionist, playful, eclectic, larger than life”. Fellow artist Jessie Ware has stated: “There is a strength and a command that Róisín generates as a solo artist, particularly as a woman within the dance world. (…) She has been able to create international bangers yet still remains totally original and never follows a trend. She is a pioneer and always has been.”
Enjoy the show – here comes the weekend.
