SAM MORTON

Hunger Hill Road / Ghosts Are Dancing

Genre: ELECTRONIC

Boomkat Product Review:

Yeah that Sam Morton, with a limited edition, presumably long-in-the-making debut, featuring an A-side that opens on a LinnDrum heavy ‘The Beautiful Ones’ tip, and a flipside channeling Broadcast via HTRK. Really strong gear, highly recommended if yr into Jonnine, Antena, Hype Williams.

Oscar-nominated actor Samantha Morton is clearly not content with being among the most celebrated British actors of her generation, she's now shimmied into experimental pop with rare grace, on a long-teased debut 7” that finds her slurring casually and seductively over lopsided, lo-fi production in the best way.

Despite a lifelong love of, and involvement in, music, this is her first ever artist project. It came about after XL's Richard Russell reached out following her much talked about appearance on Desert Island Discs and a shared love of one of her song selections in particular: “I Remember” by Molly Drake. The period of spontaneous and intense collaboration that soon followed yielded a huge amount of music and acted as a cathartic vehicle for Morton’s mainly autobiographical lyricism and songwriting.

'Hunger Hill Road' pairs Morton's whimsical vocals with a squashed rhythm and collapsed strings. It sounds like a parallel universe Hype Williams, successfully teetering on the high-wire between order and chaos. On the flip, 'Ghosts Are Dancing' bonds synths to a sub-heavy beat, leaving Morton to sing into an echo chamber the size of Cheddar Gorge, a bit like HTRK's Jonnine Standish or the great Isabelle Antena x Adrian Sherwood in dub.

7" (2)