For those who judontknow, I still scrawl the Bizarre Ride column at LA Weekly. I try to keep the worlds separate in the style of G. Costanza, but occasionally, there’s the need for crossover. This week’s column is one of those times.
Vanessa Fernandez is a singer who records as Vandetta. Born and raised in Singapore, she recorded one of the year’s best R&B records in Los Angeles–where she spends roughly half the year. I’m unsure whether R&B is the right tag for her music. Her eponymous EP is inspired by Bjork’s Medulla because she used her voice to create every sound. You can hear the traces of Beth Gibbons, Aaliyah, and the beats that bang at the Low End Theory. The themes subvert the repression of her home country, but the music bears none of the suffocating heaviness of most political music. She sings from a place of pain, but the music is uplifting and far better than whatever Tumblr R&B singer critics and publicists are touting this week. It is very highly recommended and you can stream it below the jump.
