Ben Khan: Momentum
The barely 22-year-old musician, vocalist, visual artist and producer made a substantial mark in 2014 with the 1992 EP, which introduced his idiosyncratic blend of inventive electronic soul and blues, bruised nocturnal funk and reimagined, angular pop. Arriving seemingly out of nowhere, it won praise from Pitchfork (‘Best New Music’) to NPR (‘Favourite Songs of 2014’), iTunes (‘Artist for 2015’) to BBC Radio 1 (Zane Lowe’s ‘Next Hype’) and The Fader among others, earmarking Ben as one of 2014’s most critically regarded and hotly tipped artists. All the while, the songs clocked up millions of plays across Spotify, Soundcloud and on YouTube with visually striking videos, and topped the charts of blog aggregator Hype Machine several times, demonstrating a wide and unmediated appeal.
Picking up where ‘1992’ left off, Ben Khan’s ‘1000’ EP was released in May 2015 on his own Blessed Vice label. Premiering as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record In The World on BBC Radio 1, the lead and title track, ‘1000’, was added to Radio 1’s playlist and topped the Hype Machine ‘Most Blogged Artist’ chart. The groundswell of excitement was further consolidated when Ben played a triumphant debut London live show at Cargo this month to a room overflowing at capacity, with the date having sold out in a head spinning four minutes.
Momentum will fund a 10 date UK tour, including rehearsals and additional production.