Jams of the Week: Hak Baker, Mr Jukes, Hana, Blaenavon, and more

From dia­monds in the rough to big tunes from pop seniors, this week is stuffed to burst­ing with incred­i­ble tunes. Dig in.

And don’t for­get to check out our UK Fresh List on Spo­ti­fy, updat­ed week­ly with new music by fledg­ing artists we can’t get enough of, and return­ing stars.

‘7am’ by Hak Baker
Hak Bak­er, a pro­tégé of Skep­ta, is a grime MC turned brown-eyed soul man. Get a load of the East End crooner’s self-reflec­tive ‘7am’ and its equal­ly dreamy video.

‘Angels / Your Love (feat. BJ the Chica­go Kid)’ by Mr Jukes
If you’re a suck­er for jazz-funk, then you’ll adore ‘Angels / Your Love’ by Mr Jukes, the new alias of Jack Stead­man. He spent the last 10 years fronting British indie group Bom­bay Bicy­cle Club. With the group cur­rent­ly on hia­tus, Stead­man has dived fur­ther into jazz and soul, and the result sounds spec­tac­u­lar. His album, God First, is due on July 16, on Uni­ver­sal-Island Records.

‘Be with U’ by Hana
Hana is the sum­mer crush your nev­er knew you always want­ed. The irre­sistible sun-soaked vibe of the beat and her mel­on-fresh vocals caught our atten­tion ear­li­er this week, and we keep going back to it. Don’t wait until next sum­mer. You need to hear Hana right now!

‘Lone­ly Side’ by Blaenavon
Hamp­shire Indie rock­ers Blae­navon have a win­ner in ‘Lone­ly Side’. It’s catchy stuff in the vein of Vam­pire Week­end and Foals. Their debut, That’s Your Lot, came out in April on Trans­gres­sive Records.

‘Star­ing Back at Me’ by Kat Deal
We’re real­ly hop­ing Kat Deal will have more new mate­r­i­al to come, because this song – and its accom­pa­ny­ing video – is dope. Inspired by the likes of Robert Glasper, Janelle Monáe and Sarah Vaughn, the jazzy pop of this young Lon­don singer is sharp.

‘Ussy Ussy’ by MoStack
North Lon­don rap­per MoStack has had lis­ten­ers in pieces over his wavy sto­ry of a week-long, on-off fling – Craig David’s ‘7 Days’ for the Net­flix-and-chill gen­er­a­tion? Quite pos­si­bly. MoStack’s mix­tape, High Street Kid, is out today.

‘Iso­tach’ by Matthew Bourne
Some­times you just want to reach for some piano music. And ‘Iso­tach’ by Matthew Bourne is well on point. Play on, mae­stro, play on…

‘Fire’ by Beth Ditto
Ex-Gos­sip singer Beth Dit­to chan­nels Pri­mal Scream’s Bob­by Gille­spie and Ste­vie Nicks for this charged, rock ‘n’ roll fight-starter. Ditto’s solo album, Fake Sug­ar, is out June 16, on Myra’s Child/Virgin Records.


MORE JAMS OF THE WEEK, 02/06/2017

Image: cour­tesy of Hak Baker