Nilüfer Yanya: Painless – Trip-hop infiltrated with something darker

Some form of creativity was always going to be part and parcel of Nilüfer Yanya's life: the work of her Turkish father is exhibited in the British Museum, her Irish-Barbadian mother is a noted textile designer and her uncle is a musician/record producer. Yanya's rise to moderate stardom has been similarly swayed. Beginning her music career in 2014, she refused an offer to join a girl group that would have collaborated with One Direction's Louis Tomlinson; instead, she chose to forgo possible success to work on original material.

A few EPs and a debut album later (2019’s Miss Universe, largely inspired by Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror sci-fi show), Yanya enters a different phase of her creativity with a second album that further sharpens her singular set of influences. As she herself has noted, her name presumes an R&B slant, and while there is that here, what makes her music different is the blend.

Joy Division

Yanya’s debut focused on an intermingling of nu-jazz and trip-hop, but on Painless that style is cleverly infiltrated with sensibilities derived from listening to the likes of Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Radiohead, and The xx (as well as Turkish music, notably on L/R). The results are initially uncertain, but across songs as confidently shaped as Trouble, Chase Me, Shameless and Belong with You (and pretty much the rest) early lingering doubts disappear in vapour trails of unwavering appeal.  niluferyanya.com