Rose Kemp - A Hand Full of Hurricanes

It would be too easy to compare Rose Kemp to Cat Power, or even Inara George. She has similarities with her American counterparts, sure enough, but negotiating Rose Kemp may just be a little more difficult than employing sweeping similitudes. Certainly, she has a lot of those female singer/songwriter traits – laboured vocals and strange lyrics do equate to a strong reliance on such American grassroots influences. But she also has something just that little bit different and is not without a truly British personality. Playing with a melancholic confidence, yet sidestepping the insecurity of so many contemporaries, Rose Kemp occasionally allows her emotion to explode through A Hand Full of Hurricanes' more tender nature. Never quite so meticulously sinister as on first single, 'Violence,' Kemp's gentle sounds and awkward vocals sit closely by her peers. Yet the darkness, her penchant for just a little raw anger and brooding presumptuousness, are all her own. [Neil Ferguson]