London-based Egyptian-American future R&B singer Cole Basta aka Col3trane is just 18. He might have only been making music for two and a half years, both solo and with Birmingham hip-hop collective Blue Room Mafia, but he’s already firing out the good stuff. His debut mixtape Tsarina impressed music fans in late 2017, a product of his teen musical influences that The FADER described as “post-Blonde pop music”, with lead single Penelope scoring a music video directed by Prince’s photographer Nicole Nodland, no less.
Our other mixtape fave, Language, features London rapper Ebenezer (“he’s really, really good. I learn from watching him and how hardworking he is,” says Cole) and bouncy minimal production as the lyrics cover joining forces and forging worlds in relationships. The accompanying video was shot around Southwark by director Felix Brady, who Cole suspects has cinematic superpowers, and was captured in one massive shot. “I’ll try to explain…” the singer told us over email this morning. “We shot it on a MOCO camera which means it’s motion controlled by a really smart computer. Every shot was pre-planned and taken from a vantage point on a sick camera with a mad zoom lens on a balcony in London that looks over bare different spots. Every shot had to be pretty precise and you just see me and my friends messing about in the rain and partying. It was real fun.”
Zooming in and out on house parties, hangouts on rooftops, kids setting off fireworks in parks — it’s a well-orchestrated snapshot of London life. “The song is playful,” Cole says. “And the video is a party; all positive, all fun. I’m proud we made something that looks and feels like London.”