Inga Copeland - Speak

Moody bruiser of a new EP track from the Hype Williams woman, listenable thanks to a YouTube ruffian.

Inga Copeland has a presence that scratches at the subconscious. It’s half that scraggly voice – thick with a sadness sharpened by dogged determination – and half the spaces she leaves in-between her words. “So say what I want to hear / The future is so near,” she sings on Speak in this YouTube rip from her new EP ‘Don’t Look Back, That’s Not Where You’re Going’ (out this Monday on Copeland and Hype Williams’ bandmate Dean Blunt’s own label World Music). It’s a moody bruiser of a bass beast; those chords get into your shoulders, work the muscle.

The Russian-born, Estonia-raised singer/producer has worked with Martyn and Scratcha DVA on the EP. We know Martyn produced A&E (submit to a frustratingly brief preview here) and it sounds like Scratcha DVA is behind Speak. ‘Don’t Look Back, That’s Not Where You’re Going’ also features So Far So Clean, which Inga performed live at Boiler Room last November. All in all, it points to an essential release – and one that spells big things for the hinted-at solo album to follow.