[Closed] I don't get Kate Tempest

I could have written that myself - she's not for me

Music is subjective

I can see that it might be a tough one to get if you just hear individual tracks on the radio. As an album or a live performance she is really powerful. I would recommend getting Let them eat chaos or book of traps, sitting down and listening to them from start to finish.

A female, Southern, Sleaford Mods to me.

Awful.

My mrs loves her. Her lyrics (especially compared to other UK rappers!) are brilliant.

Theres loads of shite music on 6music. & the majority of presenters are unlistenable.

I think she is brilliant. More a spoken word artist/poet than musician though in my opinion, but brilliant never the less. I particularly like the narratives in Let Them Eat Chaos and The Book of Traps and Lessons.

Saw her perform "Let them eat Chaos" at the Green Man festival in 2017, it was one of the most compelling, emotionally charged and moving performances I've ever seen.

I can see that it might be a tough one to get if you just hear individual tracks on the radio. As an album or a live performance she is really powerful.

I don't think I could manage that. I guess people must find her powerful, and I'll have to find my way of coming to terms with that, but I find she comes across as trying to be emotionally powerful about relatively mundane stuff.

Love her stuff, so the 6music push of her stuff is great imo.

A poet that happens to set her poetry to music sometimes.

I think she is brilliant.

I guess people must find her powerful, and I’ll have to find my way of coming to terms with that,

Why?

She is divisive and not lowest common denominator popular, so not everyone is going to like her, its no big deal, listen to what you do like.

ctk - if you don't like 6music, don't listen; no-one is making you.

I think shes great, also like sleaford mods

philjunior
Member

I find she comes across as trying to be emotionally powerful about relatively mundane stuff.

may i suggest sir tries Victoria Wood or Pam Ayres?

Music is a personal thing and I think radio 6 is trying to play alternative and usually unheard of artists.

I saw Kate Tempest at Esquires in Bedford and was impressed, it certainly wouldn't be my first choice.

I also think radi0 6 seems to have a very small playlist and the same artists seem to be repeated ad nauseum, throughout the day.

I find Anne Merideths "Sawbones" has me reaching for the off button, just seems like a jarring noise, and yet gets played what seems like every hour at the moment.

She's alright I like her upbeat stuff. She's a really good lyrical story teller and she's got some hard, dirty beats. She does massively over do it on the super-emotional teenage poetry. It's very earnest. Some people might think it's powerful it just makes me cringe. That's the stuff that gets the most airplay.

You're right about 6 music though. I mostly love it for being the only good music radio station but they do latch on to some really boring, unremarkable artists and when they're in hype mode they play everything to death. It's much better after work and on weekends or any time they ditch the playlist format.

I don’t get Kate Tempest

It's alright, it's not compulsory. See, also, every other musician, poet and artist in the world, ever.

A poet that happens to set her poetry to music sometimes

Bang on. I absolutely love her. She's amazing live and her gigs are quite an experience, with some music and some spoken word poetry. I've just read that back and realise that it sounds really really ****y, but in reality it's not.

spoken word artist/poet

This is probably what makes her so unbearable to listen to for me. It's the sort of thing that you'd hear down at a meeting of ****ers in a crusty cafe in Leith during their "bring your own poetry" night, but for some reason has jumped into the semi mainstream and not made 100% of the population's toes curl.

I dont mind a bit of Kate Tempest, but I too very much prefer the up beat faster fictional stuff rather than the angsty political edged bent.

That KEXP vid up there^^^ is actually worth a watch.

Love her, but she often has her earnestness turned up to 11 and she's not what you'd call an easy listen. If you don't like her that's fine, there are plenty of bands/performers I can see are quality but personally don't care for.

She's great. Listened to her for a while. Saw her in Perth a couple of weeks ago. Strangest gig ever. Everyone was just transfixed. Just her and the keyboard chick. It's deep and I guess too deep for some. She's written books and plays and poetry too.

If you like her, she was supported by a guy called Omar Musa who was also very good. But yeah, I get she's Marmite. Woudln't the world be a sad place if we all liked the same stuff.

I saw her at End of teh Road last year. Had listened to her stuff before and really was not bothered, but live was a different experience. Very powerful.

Kate Tempest and The Comet is Coming.

100% with the OP here. I have to turn it off whenever she is on.

I think radio 6 is trying to play alternative and usually unheard of artists.

mmmm.... yee-es. And I say this as someone who's been listening every day since I first bought a DAB in 2007, but they do have a very strict playlist of artists/ tracks, and Kate Tempest is right in the thick of it.

What tipped me over the edge this morning was MAH playing basically a 15 minute cut from her set over the weekend. I'm not a fan of Kate Tempest (I keep waiting for any recognisable melody, chorus or catchy bit), but normally it's over in 3 minutes, so I can just ignore it.

I find her hugely irritating, when she comes on the radio, I change channel. I only do that for one other person; Hugo Duncan. She is in illustrious company 🙂

Good poet but the faux accent can be wearing (she's a graduate of a god acting/performance arts school and speaks RP when not on 6 Music).

Some of her music's good, some of it I just find far too downbeat. She likes to whine and talk about how life is hard for everyone, and whilst I know it is for some I don't feel likes she's talking to me at all 🙂.

Not a huge fan, but better than alot of others

she’s a graduate of a god acting/performance arts school and speaks RP when not on 6 Music)

bullshit

she’s a graduate of a god acting/performance arts school and speaks RP when not on 6 Music

Cobblers! She's from saaaaarf Laaaandon, There's nothing faux about the accent.

I think you must be confusing her with Dick Van Dyke

Kate Tempest vs Sleaford Mods rap battle over an Anna Meredith brass apocalypse. Tough but I'd listen to that!

6 Music regularly elevates certain acts to their 6 music sainthood. Most of them leave me cold or worse. The rest of their repertoire I find good and I listen to it most of the time.

She’s way too mainstream for me. 😁

rankconway
Subscriber
ctk – if you don’t like 6music, don’t listen; no-one is making you.

Wrong! I live in a house with someone who does make me listen to it.

I do get Kate Tempest

And Sleaford Mods

I don't get Idles though, which is odd because it is exactly the kind of music I should like.

I've never got David Bowie. I've tried, but I just don't see what the fuss was.

See, takes all sorts doesn't it

I think Anna Meredith has replaced Kate on the R6 altar of mediocrity

Kate Tempest sounds awful, but aphex_2k's recommendation for Omar Musa gets a thumbs up. I was privileged to meet him and Luka Lesson a couple of years ago, they totally changed my perception of poetry and spoken word

I am a 50 year old white middle class male living in the north.
Kate Tempest is absolutely fantastic. One of the best live acts I’ve seen ever. Even better than Sleaford Mods.
Her writing is really special. Check out her books.
Didn’t she go to goldsmiths, graduate in English literature. (After the Brit school)
Anna merideth gets autocorrected to Anna me ride this on my phone, so also good.

I saw her purely spoken word several years back alongside Scroobius Pip.

It was a cool gig. Wasn't expecting it but she was great. Would loved to have seen her set to music though.

Some of her stuff goes a bit ott for me and I find myself mimicking her voice quite often, but yeah, she's really good and a brilliant role model for female rappers/poets.

I find Anne Merideths “Sawbones” has me reaching for the off button, just seems like a jarring noise, and yet gets played what seems like every hour at the moment.

I was literally reading your comment there and listening to six music, when what should come on?... 🤣

Does my head in too.

In fact, Six music is obsessed with shouty, noisy nonsense at the moment whether that be Idles, or them ones that go on about feeling invincible in their sunglasses.

SO MUCH SHOUTING!... Stop it!

Is Sawbones that one that sounds like someone doing an escalating scale repeatedly on a keybaord using trumpet setting? Awful.

I do get Kate Tempest

And Sleaford Mods

I don’t get Idles though, which is odd because it is exactly the kind of music I should like.

Ahhh, Idles have too much of a tune, in between the shouting? That must be it... 😀

Pigsx7 do my head in, and they are very much in 6 Music's current playlist

She's absolutely brilliant live. I saw at Greenman in 2017 too, and she was incredible. Saw her again recently in Bristol, and she was good again. Never really listen to her at home though...

Peeps complaining about R6 music.....maybe listen to Radio 2 instead?

Peeps complaining about R6 music…..maybe listen to Radio 2 instead?

typical patronising comment. Not complaining about 6Music - which is ace - people are complaining about specific massively promoted tracks.

I've got a Coldplay album. Somewhere.

and the shouting 😛

I don't think any music is supposed to be for everyone. I cant think of any artist worth their salt that doesn't have a few "haterz".

I'm not a fan of KT but thats fine as most of the stuff i like would be considered dreadful by the vast majority of people.

and the shouting 😛

It is though innit. I guess it annoys me as it's just a rehash of so much before it and it's been done to death, and it's so prevalent just now. I love Six music as really it plays almost everything. Currently though, the kids who've just discovered that they can make money shouting are a bit heavily weighted.

I used to love a bit of Discharge. Pigs pigs pigs pigs pigs pigs pigs just kinda sound like a rubbish Discharge covers band 😂

See. Literally the almost same.

I like her, more in the vein of Sage Francis, B Dolan, Scroobius Pip than all that mumble rap (with a capital C) out there. I like hip-hop more on the poetry side myself

VA8hzUDXvtk

I'm so happy someone has just posted some Discharge on here. Made my day

Plus, the singer from pigs x 7 seems to be doing a very bad Rollins impression in that video.

Music that not everyone likes - whatever next? I do agree that their playlist sometimes seems limited, but if you're after variety and new stuff there is plenty on 6 music to satisfy that, Marc Riley and Gideon Coe both play some amazingly varied stuff, plus Cerys on Sundays, Iggy Pop - as long as you avoid Mary Anne Hobbs I think it's a pretty awesome station - although I do agree that shouty not very musical punky stuff is over played at the moment, between Sleaford Mods which I do think are overrated, Idles, Fontaine's DC, The Blinders and others it does get a bit much. Also Idles sound terrible live!

Also Idles sound terrible live!

I wasn't that fussed about Idles but went to see them live a couple of months ago and thought they were excellent. It was a great gig!

Sleaford Mods are truly amazing live though. We've seen them a few times and its a visceral experience in barely controlled anger watching Jason do his thing. If you're going to do shouty (and sweary) then do it like you mean it

I think Anna Meredith has replaced Kate on the R6 altar of mediocrity

I'm not too bothered by the altar of mediocrity, I just really can't listen to KT. And yeah MAH's 15 minute rerun from the weekend meant I detuned, came back a few minutes later, then started listening to something on Radio 4...

Sleaford Mods are OK in their way. Idles I'm kind of ambivalent to, same with David Bowie. OH listens to a load of 20 year old dance music mixed with modern incredibly bland mediocrity, but I can usually cope with that. At least we both agree on Kate Tempest!

Music that not everyone likes – whatever next?

It's not that I don't like it. It makes me cringe so badly. Some Fontaines DC makes me cringe a bit but this is like utter torture, and I find it really odd that other people react so differently to Kate Tempest, I genuinely find it hard to accept the difference of opinion, like the way that some people like coleslaw and mayonnaise.

If you don't like mayonnaise what do you do with your tins of tuna?

It’s not that I don’t like her (more ambivalent than anything else), I object to playing her track in the morning.

FFS I’m trying to drive to work. Hard enough without that depressive down beat monotonic poetry’ in my ear.

I like 6music, but turn that down. Road noise is more thought provoking at that time of day!

and I find it really odd that other people react so differently to Kate Tempest, I genuinely find it hard to accept the difference of opinion,

I find this a strange comment 🤷🏻‍♂️

People react very differently to many things in life, especially music & art.

I can’t stand Jazz, sometimes R6M gets a bit jazzy and I have to turn it off, but I can fully accept that others love it.

FWIW I listened to Kate’s live show on the way to work this morning, but then I really like her.

I also listened to Nadine Shah’s on the way home, which was also excellent.

Idles sound terrible live!

My mate thought that too. I think they appeal to the get-involved-and-experience-the-gig type, rather than standing around chin scratching.

Radio gets switched off when she comes on. Dreadful.

I think she's OK, which makes me weird since everybody else really seems to care one way or the other

What I DO care about is 6music's overly repetitive playlist; it's soooo bloody unimaginative, and from a station that supposedly espouses creativity in its coverage.

Actually it's worse than just 6music, 5 live has the most annoyingly repetitive set of jingles & trailers. The only way I can listen to either is in hour-long spells. Gah, BBC

middle aged white men in not liking this popular music shocker

I like her a lot. Also like Lady Marga who is equally marmitey. Listen to “Run for cover”.

I can't bring myself to listen to her 'music', but I presume it fits the 6music lefty agenda perfectly. No doubt she's a regular at XR events

I can’t bring myself to listen to her ‘music’, but I presume it fits the 6music lefty agenda perfectly. No doubt she’s a regular at XR events

yeah! and a vegan remoaner too, I'll bet!

It's elf and safefy gone mad! The loony left so called Politically Correct brigade!

My comment about Idles is based purely on hearing a live version of Danny Nedelko on 6 music - I realise that it's pretty shouty but it was horribly out of tune - I imagine that if you were there then it would be a lot better but the recorded version of the live gig sounded pretty rough......

I find her horribly depressing. I'd rather have a night out in Basingstoke instead.

Is she the new Streets.... No music as such, just talking over a track.

A big Meh from me.

I also think radi0 6 seems to have a very small playlist and the same artists seem to be repeated ad nauseum, throughout the day.

Have you ever tried listening to Radio 1, 2, or every commercial radio station in the U.K.?
I, for one, just cannot understand the adoration heaped onto the Manics, for example, or Oasis, or a whole bunch of artists that 6Music plays, but their hit-rate of stuff I like is far above any other radio station, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
There’s always going to be things that just don’t appeal, and that’s good, because the same will be true for everyone else! What I’ve never, ever done, regardless of how much I dislike a song/tune/whatever, is turn off or turn over, because I can’t be arsed, and because I might miss something that really has me going ‘wow’!
Going back to Kate T, I like her, I saw her at Greenman and she blew me away, she just doesn’t let up, and I felt exhausted at the end of the set, in a good way.
I really must get some of her records, and check out some of her writings, too.

I think she’s great. Let them eat chaos is an album based around the stories of several people who can’t sleep so I like the way the tracks are related to each other and the subject’s experiences within. Europe is Lost seems to sum up modern life very succinctly.

Peeps complaining about R6 music…..maybe listen to Radio 2 instead?

Radio 6 is Radio 2 for the somewhat up themselves.

Old and in the way.

I've been lucky enough to see KT a few times now, always been very impressed, but the two times i saw her purely spoken word were just incredible.
Once late night in the RumBar at Glastonbury. 45-60 mins of uninterrupted poetry, linked stuff from her back catalogue.
the other time was in a small side tent/bar at the downs in bristol. she did the whole of Let Them Eat Chaos before it was released. one of the best things i've seen.

Old and in the way.

That too 🤙

Fwiw I feel relieved when I learn an act I wonder if I should bother listening to but feel no enthusiasm to so (Tempest, Krule) is a Brit School alumnum. My loss no doubt on the altar of some sort of authenticity.

scuttler
Member
Kate Tempest vs Sleaford Mods

both my cuppa tea... not only did I see kate a few weeks ago, I'm off to see sleaford mods on saturday. im sure there will be many locals who are there but cant understand what he's saying / singing!

I also think radi0 6 seems to have a very small playlist and the same artists seem to be repeated ad nauseum, throughout the day.

+1 I noticed this when listening in the weekdays, soon got bored of the same old same new just on account of the groundhog day effect. OTOH, evenings and weekends are almost like a different station and lots more interesting IIRC.

OP - different ppl like different artists/music, so why overthink this? I enjoy some music and do not enjoy some other music. Whether music is ‘popular’, derided, lauded, or whatnot not does not really affect my enjoyment or otherwise. I suppose if you heard a constant stream of comments about some music you really like being ‘shit’ and ‘pretentious’ or ‘emperor’s new clothes’ or wotnot you might begin to doubt your own judgment, yet...people also say a lot of negative shit and psychological projection is often a powerful if unrecognised force to inspire the (usually negative) critic. I tend now to only enthuse about what I like and let others like what they like without my projecting in their earholes (Had a short stint 20 years ago of going from active to inactive musician, then to hyperactive music critic. Bored myself* in the end, which helped me understand the glazed expressions I’d been getting from friends 🤭)

*Talking of which, What did I just say? 😴 Zzzzzzzzz...

Just turned on the radio and she is on again! cool!

Radio 6 is Radio 2 for the somewhat up themselves.

There is a lot of truth in this, but I can acknowledge it because I am knowingly up myself

She's on again.... arrrgh!!!