From Aarhus, Denmark
Recommended if you like Caroline Polachek, Zara Larsson, Grimes
Up next Debut project coming later this year<\/p>\n
You could hardly make a better professional songwriting debut than co-writing nine 10ths of a moment-defining album \u2013 namely Zara Larsson\u2019s Midnight Sun<\/a> \u2013 then getting a Grammy nod for it. It\u2019s an enviable springboard for the relaunch of Helena Gao\u2019s solo career. Over the past few years, the Chinese-Danish artist has released a handful of singles and EPs \u2013 standout God\u2019s Favourite split the difference between NewJeans and R&B, and comes with an excellent Sims-referencing video \u2013 but her new music feels like a real flourishing, sidelining her older sweetness for a freakier braid of heavy bass, stuttering trance and a pitch-bending falsetto to rival that of Caroline Polachek, singing in English and Mandarin.<\/p>\n You can trace her evolution in tracks released just a few years apart. When Gao put out Pretty Please in 2023, the glittering, new-agey rhapsody was laced with innuendo: \u201cI\u2019m a bit of a prude,\u201d she said, conscious of her parents hearing her lyrics. But the first taste of her new era, Lao Shi \u8001\u5e08, translates to \u201cteacher\u201d; its iridescent synths blossoming like flowers as she contemplates \u201cnew positions\u201d and \u201coptimising pleasure\u201d. It\u2019s more innocent than it sounds, she\u2019s said, written \u201cduring a period of personal awakening\u201d that mirrors her \u201creconnecting with my Chinese identity\u201d.<\/p>\n Born in Aarhus to a Chinese mother and Danish father, Gao moved to Copenhagen, learned classical jazz and studied \u2013 where else \u2013 at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory<\/a> that produces all Denmark\u2019s boundary-breaking pop stars, before moving to split her time between London and Shanghai, and immersing herself in both cities\u2019 club scenes. It all reverberates through a formally wild forthcoming project that should truly make Gao\u2019s name. Laura Snapes<\/p>\n This week\u2019s best new tracksA font of fortifying wisdom \u2026 Saul Williams. Photograph: Sam Lee<\/p>\n Saul Williams \u2013 Conspiracy (ft Moor Mother and Gonjasufi) Lily Seabird \u2013 Election Day Yushh \u2013 Petty Vengeance case\/lang\/veirs \u2013 Accidental Tattoo Fimiguerrero \u2013 Skywalker (ft Fakemink) Jordan Patterson \u2013 Cinderella Tierra Whack \u2013 Candle Wax Subscribe to the Guardian\u2019s rolling Add to Playlist selections on Spotify \u2013 or transfer it to Apple<\/a>, Tidal<\/a> or other services<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Aarhus, DenmarkRecommended if you like Caroline Polachek, Zara Larsson, GrimesUp next Debut project coming later this year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":746702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,136],"class_list":["post-746701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=746701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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