EsDeeKid cuts through the noise with Omens

There’s loads of music out there, and sometimes it’s hard to keep up.

Rather than letting the algorithm dictate your music taste, you can listen to Rated by THE FACE – a playlist that’s lovingly curated and updated by our (human) editorial team every week.

EsDeeKid – Omens

Right now, EsDeeKid is on his sold-out debut North American tour. I’d be interested to know how it sounds when his Stateside fans rap along to a scouse accent. ​“I’m rockin’, I’m rockin’ and rockin’, I’m rollin’ /​Gone off the Mak’, got an oz in me clothin,’” goes the chorus of his new moshpit-opener Omens. With sharp, throaty delivery, the ​“rockin”s are pronounced ​“rokh-in” and ​“Mak” sounds like ​“mach” – a detail which linguistics call velar frication. Not long ago, it seemed unlikely that a Liverpool rapper could break America. Now, it feels like EsDeeKid’s voice was destined to cut through all the noise. DR

Feng – J*b

On his last single Cali Crazy, Feng was flexing about his new lifestyle since signing a major label deal and relocating to Los Angeles. But the Croydon-raised rapper hasn’t forgotten the struggle of dreaming big while grafting hard. ​“Workin’ just to pay my rent, it makes me feel like I’m a bot /​I just want to leave my job, I really hate it ​’cause it’s something that I’m not,” he raps over a ricocheting vocal sample in his self-produced beat. So what actually was Feng’s last day job? According to Wikipedia, he was a lifeguard. DR

Sorry – Alone In Cologne

As Sorry gear up to take their third album Cosplay on the road, the London-based band have surprised their fans with two new songs: Billy Elliot and Alone In Cologne. The latter features chopped up guitar and frontwoman Asha Lorenz’s somewhat tortured vocals, as she recounts her escapades in Cologne, Berlin and the US. It’s an alluringly warped, off-beat song; as it reaches its frenzied climax, you get the sense Asha doesn’t feel any less lonely despite her travels. JW

Alba Akvama – Blue Body

When Danish artist Alba Akvama posted a carousel promoting Blue Body last week, she ended it with an image that perfectly sums up the sound of the track. A crisp, freezing cold sunrise, shining orange over an empty road lined by bare Nordic trees. Blue Body is a pensive acoustic track which explores the idea of killing a lover to preserve a feeling in time. On the liner notes Alba writes, ​“there’s a longing to stop time at a point where everything is still standing, right before things go wrong… the killing freezes the frame, before the love dilutes.” At the end of the month, Alba will be joining fellow introspective artist Mark William Lewis on tour, and I can only hope that my Notes app is ready for that post-gig journey home. TL