Selector Radio at SXSW, Texas
Selector Radio is our weekly radio show here at the British Council. It airs around the world and has done every week since 2001. This year, the show’s phenomenal host and one of the UK’s biggest music tastemakers, Sian Eleri, hosted a Selector Sessions evening there at the The Velveeta Room in Texas on Friday 15 March 2024. Audio Always, who produce Selector shows each week, were there too – recording and getting ready to share the gigs will anyone who wasn’t there in person, including the many millions of the show’s regular weekly listeners.
Head to selector-radio.com and you can keep up with all highlights, also available on YouTube and Mixcloud.
Sharing the best of the best
Ahead of the festival, Sian Eleri said: ‘for years, I've lovingly admired acts and fellow radio presenters from afar who head to SXSW each year. Now, it's such a dream to get to experience the festival up close and personal in all its glory with Selector and the British Council for 2024. I'll always rally behind events that put the world’s best future music talent in a room together, I can’t wait to get amongst it. On top of all that, I get to share the best of the best with Selector listeners across the globe!’
This SXSW 2024 showcase was be produced by our partners, British Underground, whose mission is to showcase outstanding UK music to international audiences.
Meet the Selector at SXSW 2024 artists
Porij
'An endearing blend of house, garage, new wave and lo-fi pop' – The Guardian
'Genre-splicing art-pop ready made for the dancefloor' – NME
'Impossible to genuinely pin down' – Clash
Porij have endured the sharp pains of self-discovery. Since the beginning, Porij have self-produced, self-mixed and entirely self-made their music and, even after having signed to [PIAS], their debut album Teething was still incubated in their bedrooms and later bassist James Middleton’s flat where they would sit together for hours giving colour, shape and texture to this new world. It was only then that they enlisted legendary producer David Wrench, famed for his work with era-defining artists including Frank Ocean, FKA Twigs and The XX. His mentorship allowed Teething to transform their music from a live-angled proposition to something folded in the arms of pop.
Vocalist and keyboardist Scout Moore (Eggy), bassist James Middleton, guitarist Jacob Maguire and drummer Nathan Carroll are armed with hard-won experience, strengthened bonds and a renewed sense of passion. Teething is both a coming-of-age story and a bottling of the particular magic that is unmistakably – and definitively – Porij.
Ebi Soda
Born from ten-hour jam sessions in peeling Brighton bedsits, the technical parameters of a bootstrap recording process and the osmotic, multi-genre influence of internet music archives, quintet Ebi Soda have been steady-cultivating a unique sound amidst the exploding UK jazz scene.
With a cynical, somewhat industrial approach to jazz which could only be informed by the greyness of the streets of Britain, Ebi Soda juxtapose the skies of their surroundings with an illustrious approach to crafting sound over their abrasive beats, conveying colour and dreariness simultaneously. As staunch anti-traditionalists, they thrive on this idea of contradiction, seeming more inspired by the atmosphere inside a rave than the sounds heard on jazz records. Their only debt to typical jazz being to attempt to innovate and experiment at every opportunity.
Chiedu Oraka
'The Yorkshire rapper proves his rank amongst the echelons of the UK rap scene' – ABSO
A leading figure in the northern rap and grime scene, Chiedu Oraka, aka ‘The Black Yorkshireman’ defies genres with his blend of raw honesty and social poetry. Raised on North Hull Estate, Oraka’s lyrical abilities create an in-depth memoir of the Northern Black experience. A strong 2023 saw Oraka sign with Marshall’s live booking agency, perform at The Great Escape 2023, headline his first Leeds show and Humber Street Sesh and play his first UK headline tour in October 2023. Oraka entered 2024 armed with his lengthiest project to date, Misfit, a 12-track mixtape signed to EMI North via Launchpad that goes deeper on both fronts – the anthems and the message – than ever before. Single, ‘Rhythm of My Pain’ taken from Misfit has seen strong support from The Independent, Clash, Line of Best Fit to BBC Introducing, 6 Music and 1Xtra to name a few.
Chiedu Oraka remains one of the scene’s most dynamic live performers, having supported UK artists such as Stormzy, Jaykae, Akala, Novelist, Mostack and Poundz, as well as US hip hop legend KRS One and continues to set the bar high for northern talent, confirming his position as a premiere UK lyrical artist.
O.
‘The music alone will see 2023 morph into the year of O’ – Loud & Quiet
‘Though played on acoustic instruments, O.’s music has the heft of the most potent club records. Watch them fly’ – DJ
As the circular simplicity of their name suggests, O. are a true self-contained unit. They formed in London during lockdown, when Joe and Tash – both veterans of a string of London ensembles – found themselves in a bubble together. When they started jamming, it was with no preconceptions: don’t overthink it, just play and see what happens. Before long, though, they were augmenting live instruments with effects – Joe routing his saxophone through a pedal board, Tash treating her drums with reverb and delay. As their sound grew and grew, it gradually became clear there wouldn’t be space for anyone else.
Eleni Drake
‘The British singer-songwriter has successfully captured the beachy, cosmic energy the record’s name seems to indicate’ – Consequence
‘A compulsive set of songs laced in spacey twang … there’s a touch of David Lynch about its zonk-blues melancholia’ – The Arts Desk
Hailing from West London, Eleni Drake is a singer, songwriter and producer whose songs are decorated with a wonderful mixture of indie rock, blues and jazz. Creating unique, vintage and gorgeous sounding ballads her brooding and moody songs are self-produced and a clear view into her heart.
Eleni's second album Surf The Sun was released 19 May 2023 on her own Vanilla Sky Recordings imprint digitally and on limited sun effect vinyl LP.
The record received media coverage and support from the likes of The Line Of Best Fit, CLASH Magazine, Consequence, The Independent, The Arts Desk, Noctis Mag, Ones To Watch, La Blogotheque, AlexRainBird, Vanyaland, DiscoNaivete, Somewhere Soul, Wonderland Magazine and Record Of The Day.
L E M F R E C K
‘Taking his grime and rap bona fides and running with them, it’s a work that deserves wide recognition’ – Buzz
L E M F R E C K is a musician, producer and visual artist who excels in unique storytelling that echos the experiences of his community.
Described as a conjurer of melodies, a clandestine alchemist of beats, and an enigmatic weaver of narratives that reverberate with the souls of the collective.
Selector at SXSW 2023
Some of the best emerging UK music talent performed at SXSW (South By Southwest festival) in Austin, Texas in March 2023 as Selector Radio presented a genre-defying night of music together with Selector's then host, Jamz Supernova.
Selector Radio's mission has been to bring the best new UK music for the world, every single week for over two decades. Featuring art-pop, alt R&B and more, the performances featured an eclectic mix from fast-rising artists including: avant garde art-pop artist Jessica Winter, electronica-jazz collective Ishmael Ensemble, jazz-punk collective Robocobra Quartet, alt-R&B singer-songwriter TYSON and British Latinx singer Desta French.
‘Such a joy and a privilege to not only go to SXSW for the first time but to be trusted to curate a stage!’ says Jamz. ‘I’m so proud of our eclectic line up, it really showcases how exciting our musical UK offering is!'
