Hints of a star in the making
In 2011, you could barely walk near a pop festival without bumping into Sampha – I saw him twice in a day at Bestival alone. But while the soul singer’s voice filled our fields and airwaves, you could be forgiven for letting the man himself pass you by: Sampha Sisay, then 22, sang with SBTRKT, the dance project from musician Aaron Jerome, and always performed in disguise.
Few of those who sang along to SBTKRT’s summer anthems could have predicted Sampha’s career trajectory. He’s collaborated with titans – Kanye West, Drake and Khalil Joseph, the director of Beyoncé’s album Lemonade – but it’s taken him six years to strike out alone. His mother died in 2015 and his grief, along with explorations of his identity (he was born in Morden, south London to Sierra Leonean parents), family and anxiety, has been poured into his debut album, Process. Weeks after its release, it has met with such acclaim that Sampha sold out at the Roundhouse two nights running.
His set list hinted at the nerves Sampha might have been feeling. He opened here, as on Process, with Plastic
100C, a song about the anxiety-induced lump he permanently feels in his throat – but those expecting fragility would have been disappointed. Sampha broke into full-bodied dancing to belt out album tracks such as Under and
Reverse Faults. With his three band members – two on percussion, one on synths – Sampha built his melodies into complex concertinas that unfolded over the course of a song. The price to pay for this frenzied, compelling display was his falsetto, which got swallowed in the commotion.
But Sampha’s keys to stardom lie at the piano, where glimmers of his graduation into a solo artist of substance can be seen. When he stopped moving, his vocals were extraordinary, spanning octaves while still tethered, even in their highest reaches, to the sandpaper rasp that has become his trademark.
This is an artist still developing his live act, and at times the crowd’s attention wandered. Then again, they wholeheartedly joined in with Like the
Piano, the comeback single Sampha wrote about the instrument his father introduced to the family home when he was three, and the song he played at his mother’s funeral. This was soul-baring of almost unbearable intimacy, a genuine connection that hinted at how important Sampha could become – and justified how keenly the music world has welcomed his return.