When I saw Annaca at the O2 in Islington a while back I could hear – in between the ridiculously loud chatter of thge local moron (well it was Islington) a full voice and a charismatic performer who showed a lot of promise. I saw her again last week, at the Old Church in St Pancras as she launched her new EP to a very full crowd of her fans and she was superb – the same charismatic voice but you could see and hear that this was a young woman with great potential. She is very close, indeed, to the finished article and in the next couple of years I would expect to see her hitting heights as an artist – this show may have been the kicking off point for a very major artiste.
As to the EP, it is a delight. She sings with real depth to her vocal, sultry and jazzy but she can also throw in ‘little girl giggly’ and the kind of brooding intensity that Amy Winehouse was capable of. Her backing musicians are excellent – the wonderfully named Ben Bashi on drums, and Samuel Harrison on guitar plus Leo Humphries on keyboards and bass – but they can only be as good as the material they have to work with and the four songs here are excellent.
The title track is about finding a new love that reminds you of an old love and the fears of making the same mistakes again and there is a delicious theatricality about the song that will have you bouncing around the room until you realise what the subject is about. She opened with the number at St Pancras and it is a perfect vehicle for her multiple voices and character. ‘Delilah’ closes the EP and has a dark sensuality about the song. The backing is lush and the production full on but it is her voice that stops you in your tracks – you can hear her growing before your very ears.
Annaca isn’t the finished product but she shows here that he has the capacity to be a huge performer in years to come – get on board now and tell all your friends.
