Music from the Underground #5 - Benjamin Clementine

in #music7 years ago (edited)


That video was my first introduction to this fantastic artist. I quickly became obsessed by his particular sound. There’s just something about the way he plays piano, and his voice is just beautiful, described by some people as: “If Nina Simone was a man.”

As usual with these posts there is nothing I can say that hasn’t been said better elsewhere on the internet, but I can try and point you in the right direction. And, where better to start than good old Wikipedia?

“Born and raised in London, England, Clementine later moved to Paris, France becoming homeless as a teenager. There, his performances helped him to become a cult figure in the music and art scene…
Dubbed as becoming one of the greatest singer-songwriters of his generation, most critics have honoured him citing and describing him as a man of unusual intelligence, great piano style and deep musicality with charisma on stage. Nonetheless, they have found it difficult to place his music in one specific genre, mostly stating that it is beyond categorisation.

Is it just me or are all the best artists beyond categorisation? I mean, you can come up with some conventional labels and say well, it’s a bit like this mixed with some of that, and just a touch of the other for good measure. There is never a definitive label for true art, in my opinion at least.

And something more that needs to be said about this man is that he went from being a homeless busker on the streets of Paris at the age of 19 to selling out large venues before he was 28. That alone should give you some idea of the talent behind this artist and the hard work he’s put into getting to where he is, but it also speaks to the power of being in the right place at the right time.

from Wikipedia:
“After four years of living as a vagabond, he was discovered by an agent whilst walking back home from an evening performance and they arranged a meeting for the next day. The agent introduced him to a friend, later on becoming Clementine's manager for a period of time. In 2012, whilst playing a gig at the Festival de Cannes they met Lionel Bensemoun, a business mogul in France. Through him, they decided to set up the record label 'Behind' so that Clementine could record his music.”

Anyway, I’m not going to give you Mr Clementine’s life story, you can find that by going to the Wikipedia article I’ve linked to, or just by looking him up in your search engine of choice and digging in to the various articles on him. Benjamin Clementine might be the most popular artist I’ve featured on one of these Music from the Underground posts so information is abound.

One last thing that I’d like to mention before we begin, Mr Clementine is easily one of the most lyrically gifted artists of our generation, and that’s not a claim I make lightly. When it comes to lyrical prowess the only other person alive today that I think ranks up there with Benjamin Clementine is Stefan Burnett of Death Grips (more on them in the future). I’d even put Clementine up there with the likes of Leonard Cohen. A true poet.
Right, that’s enough of an introduction, let’s get this show on the road.


This track is from his first EP, Cornerstone, released in 2013. I think the vocals in this one are absolutely perfect, every so often there is just a hint of raw emotion that reminds me of some of my favourite grunge singers.

[Benjamin Clementine – I Won’t Complain]


And here is the title track from his Cornerstone EP performed on Later… with Jools Holland (a fair few of my favourite musicians have found their way onto that show). This performance was in 2013 a short while after the release of the EP, I think Clementine was 24 or 25 at the time. Backstage after the performance he was encouraged to keep going with his music by Paul McCartney.

[Benjamin Clementine – Cornerstone – Later… with Jools Holland]


This might be one of the more accessible songs on the album, so if you like something more mainstream and pop-ish, then this might be the song to bridge the gap for you. And that’s not to take anything away from the song either, even though it’s more accessible it’s still an amazing song.

[Benjamin Clementine – London]


I’m wondering how many songs I can get away with posting here because I could very easily share all of them with you. But I think after this one I might share some songs he covered and then leave you to find the rest for yourself, because I think music like this is best when explored on your own. This is another live version which is great but I don’t think it’s as good as the album version, and it’s a very rare occasion when I say that because live music is when an artist is the most pure.

[Benjamin Clementine – Adios – Live]


This song is a cover of one of my all-time favourite artists, Nick Drake. If you’re not aware of Nick Drake’s music, well, I guess you’ve got some homework to do. He was another of the world’s greatest singer/songwriters, I might even do a post on him at some point because he was definitely an underground artist during his lifetime. This is a wonderful rendition, but you should really check out the original.

[Benjamin Clementine – River Man (Nick Drake) – live]


This isn’t so much a cover as it is a reimagining of Hendrix’s Voodoo Child, and, to be fair, all anyone can really do to a Hendrix song is reimagine it because who in this world could really cover the inimitable Jimi Hendrix? His voice in this song sometimes reminds me of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ I Put a Spell on You.

[Benjamin Clementine – Voodoo Child (Jimi Hendrix) – Live]


Ok, so this video is pretty bad quality but I think it helps to illustrate just how far Benjamin Clementine has come from his days jumping Parisian Metro barriers, busking on the trains. The quality of the video doesn’t take away from the music either.

[Benjamin Clementine – Let’s Get it On (Marvin Gaye)]


Alright, I know I said I was going to finish with those few covers but I think one more song just to round things off, and what better song to say goodbye than the last track from his debut album?

[Benjamin Clementine – Gone]


Well, that felt like a bit of a long one, I hope you haven’t been bored out of your tree. I should probably mention here that Mr Clementine is releasing his second album sometime this autumn. As far as I know two songs from that album have been released already but I haven’t listened to them enough to form an opinion of them, I will say that I didn’t enjoy the first one all that much, the second one was much better and makes me hope the new album will be good.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little introduction to this wonderful artist. Let me know what you think in the comments.


Music from the Underground #1 - GAIKA
Music from the Underground #2 - Crywank
Music from the Underground #3 - Various Artists
Music from the Underground #4 - Admiral Angry

Sort:  

Congratulations @the-dagda! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

Award for the number of comments

Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here

If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

By upvoting this notification, you can help all Steemit users. Learn how here!

What a great sound/voice this guy has! And I love the piano as an instrument!

Yeah, I think he has one of the best voices out there right now, and he's completely self taught too. I agree, the piano is a wonderful instrument, it's just so expressive.

Thanks for sharing that, I listened to the first few minutes of it and think it's definitely something I'm going to enjoy. It kind of reminds me of Nils Frahm. If you're not aware of him you should check him out, I think you'd enjoy him.

This is one of the first Nils Frahm songs I ever heard if you want to check it out, it's a good place to start. And if you like it his live videos are even better.

Piano electronic style :)

Sounds very interesting! This reminds me of a lot of the electronic music created in the 80s. For sure will check out more of this guy.

He does a lot of acoustic piano stuff as well. And yeah, a lot of the sounds he makes has a somewhat 80's vibe to it, I guess it's to do with the synths he uses.

Synths: That is exactly what it is :)

Welcome to Steem đŸ™! Happy to see here, hope to read more...

@the-dagda

Nice idea......the pictures are beautiful

@the-dagda

Nice feel and somewhat different! 😊👍

@the-dagda

Very Nice Post.

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.35
TRX 0.12
JST 0.040
BTC 70638.80
ETH 3565.34
USDT 1.00
SBD 4.73