Kano Preps For London Town

Damon Albarn, Craig David, Kate Nash and more to appear on next LP…

After Royal Mail pulled their finger out, Kano’s watermarked London Town album sampler arrived moments ago with a bang. Not only featuring the first single This Is The Girl it packed sure fire, potential second singles too and a few surprises from East London’s Kane Robinson.

Following up from 100k+ selling Home Sweet Home and street heating mixtapes, Beats + Bars and The Mixtape, the 25 year-old has linked up with a few famous faces/ voices on this project. As well as collabing with Fresh Outta Di Gym Craaaaaaig David on This Is The Girl the Brit nominated MOBO winner has joined forces with Damon Albarn and Kate Nash. Some may have already heard Feel Free and Me And My Mic - which features Mr Alban and Ms Nash respectively – but they are two melody-biased tracks which feature Kano the artist who’s officially not afraid of engagingly spiting what he wants and reflecting on his environment. Yes, Feel Feel could have been lifted straight off the last Gorillaz LP and on the 138 Trek-riddled reflecting Kate Nash number we hear the line “It was all a dream, I used to read RWD Magazine,” but that’s not why London Town has impressed so far. The onetime semi pro footballer/ pirate radio dweller is sounding less like a rave MC and more like polished artist.

“It sounds like grime but a little slower,” Kane slickly spits on the title track London Town and that can be said of the rest of the sampler. Except on Fighting the Nation where he’s singing, I repeat, singing. The acoustic song, which sees Kano hitting mid-range notes before jumping into fast paced lyrics, runs smooth side-by-side guitar strums. Lines like, “…Next thing you know there are armed police at the crib. Sirens so loud he has to read the Fed’s lips. What sounded like ‘Put you hands behind you head’ was actually… DON’T MOVE SO WE DON’T HAVE TO SHOOT!!!” intertwine with the chorus, “Police and thieves in the street… fighting the nation with guns and ammunition.” A different yet welcomed approach at first listen.

Stay tuned to these very pages for more London Town updates.

Check out Craig and Kane here…



London Town is out on September 3.