Albums
Speedial
2019
Release Date: 2019
By Pitchfork
Reviewed October 17, 2018
The latest incarnation from the London-based funk polymath
The London-based musical polymath Shirley Tetteh is a wearer of many hats: guitarist, composer, jazz collective founder. As her latest incarnation Nardeydey, it shows. She has just released “Speedial” a punch bowl brew of a song: a little italo disco here, a little post-punk there;the aesthetics here are a little all over the place, but in a great way. Tetteh sets out to explore her range as a producer and manages to pull it off.
Through layers of multi-tracked vocals, blaring siren-like synth, and warbling drum machine effects that sounds not unlike toppling Jenga blocks, she sing-speaks about what she imagines what it would be like if love was more, well convenient: “I wish I had you on speedial/Just press a button and your person appears,” she muses. Of course, love isn't that simple. Gloriously, neither is the song.