Tei Shi

Hometown: Brooklyn
Lineup: Valerie Teicher
For fans of: Moko, Purity Ring
Key track: ‘M&Ms’
See her live: Valerie is yet to announce any live dates
Connect: Facebook | SoundCloud | Twitter

Having come to Brooklyn via Bogotá and Vancouver, soulful pop vocalist Tei Shi, real name Valerie Teicher, is certainly well equipped to start bending cross-continental genres.

Satisfying the USA’s slowmo electro-pop sweet tooth and our lust for glacier-melting RnB melancholia equally, Tei Shei’s debut track, ‘M&Ms’ showcases a unique affinity with spellbinding soundscapes, not to mention an exquisite vocal technique.

Elongating her marshmallow soft syllables, shes clearly mastered the use of her tongue as a separate organic instrument, wrapping dreamily sequenced vocal overdubs around a chugging rhythm, kept ticking over by distant hi-hats and forward lurching toms.

Taken from her forthcoming EP, Saudade, a Portuguese term for desiring someone long gone, heartbreak is implicit in ‘M&Ms’s lyrics. Ranging from the self-deprecating, ‘I had a dream that you left it, I deserved it’ to the desperately pleading, ‘I can be your bulletproof vest’, something’s gone down badly here and she’s still feeling the pain.

Whatever it was that happened hasn’t blunted her creative edge; a buzzing brain, crammed with future pop nous lies behind these minimalist guitar tweaks and puffing analog synths, we’re sure of it.