Georgia Anne Muldrow – Worthnothings EP (Stones Throw)

New Stones Throw signing Georgia Anne Muldrow’ debut EP, apparently released to prime fans for a forthcoming album, leaves me with more questions than answers. It could have been so different if the EP had arrived sans vocals. I would have filed it with all the other Madlib records – voice stripped away this does that slowed down techno breakbeat thing Otis Jackson Jr has his signature on; a fluctuating canvas somewhere between Domu and Theo Parrish, at hip hop tempo – but the collected evidence says the entire project was put together by 22 year old Muldrow; vocals, background vocals and the beats. If so, this is a hell of a debut. Dipping, then steeply ascending, Muldrow’ sharp voice boastfully soars from one song to another. At times, her voice is exuberant like Bjork, elsewhere it has the caramelised warmth of Erykah Badu. The flighty vamps rarely give much of her lyrical concerns away, though where they do peek out it is generally disconcerting. Witness the suicidal consideration of standout “Nothingness’. For such a warm record little is easy about “Worthnothings,’ an EP whose very title suggests an internal dialogue rarely covered on the soul-obsessed Stones Throw.