I feel like I’m late to the Kaeto party, but I’m gonna do it anyway. Somehow I missed the last couple of hype cycles around her announcements, but her recent single “U R Mine” found me last week, and I’ve had her music on all weekend while I’ve been fighting with the new layout for this website:

It’s a pretty unique sound – the repetitive piano is hypnotic, and the major-chord melody and whirling, circling chorus are soothing. It’s the second single in the lead-up to her debut mixtape, called INTRO – due for release on September 20. She’s a unique person, too: certainly the only musical artist I can think of to attend both law school and clown school.

“HERO” was released in May, and is another one of her more straightforward singles. That may have been why I overlooked it at the time (according to my browsing history). It’s a perfect complement to “U R Mine”. It has a strong cinematic pop sound, with the faint sound of “Think About It”, the Lyn Collins track that was the basis of Rob Base’s “It Takes Two”.

Kaeto has been putting out singles for a couple of years now — and she’s a lot more versatile than these two tracks let on. “Don’t Ask” came out in February, and has a much more distinctive sound that seems inspired by classic 90s pop/soul along the lines of Neneh Cherry, Soul II Soul, and Vogue-era Madonna. There’s a strange and compelling music video for it:

There’s a lot more, including “Little Me” which sounds like Massive Attack in the “Karmacoma” years, with Kaeto affecting a smoky, soulful sound that sounds completely different than the stuff above (though comes with an equally weird music video):

And of course, OF COURSE there’s a Lou Smith video from July. It’s a full-band performance, which gives a very different feel to these songs. It feels like it takes a couple of songs for the band to find their sound, so you’re best to start about the 6:30 mark when the band starts “Don’t Ask”:

She’s got a strong stage presence, and the songs lend themselves well to the full band performance. It’s funky as hell. The last song is “R U Mine”, and it’s a highlight of the set.

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