Emmeline

Emmeline Armitage, who goes by her first name alone, blends a variety of influences into a distinctive sound that owes as much to trip-hop as it does to R&B and hip-hop, though perhaps not always in obvious ways. Her singing has a contemporary pop edge, but her roots as a vocalist are planted in spoken word poetry. She did, in fact, start out as a poet before she came to music as an outlet, an arc that is reflected quite well in the evolution of her music: Her focus was less on the instrumental component initially, using electronic loops as accompaniment in her early recordings. From there, she moved towards an inventive and highly effective production, with melodic phrasings built into her songs that present a more complete musical experience to the listener.