Glastonbury Festival - Hip Hip Halima

Halima

Hip Hip Halima

New Tent - Friday

It’s not a kebab. It’s a soft jazzy groove with drifting keys and a seductive sigh as the siren-like Halima vocally massages all those aching places in the way that Dido can’t do and Tori Amos would bitch about secretly. Though Portishead-ing initially, this Somerset singer-songwriter comes from a less anxious direction and she’s got the voice of an angel on shrooms. Haunting, wailing, soaring, soothing and delicate, she massages the tension from the words and the result is quite inexplicably, heart-stoppingly gorgeous.

“Missing You” treads on the edge of more upbeat and radio-friendly coffee-table contemporary pop, albeit somewhat disappointingly, but still manages to shimmer with glossy lacquer as she opens up other mainstream doorways. As commercially slanted and sensible as it may be, she conducts it with awkward sensuality, maintaining an Alanis-like charm. It’s warming, sensual music set to strong and imaginatively written tunes, but the credit really belongs to the extraordinary adaptability of the band itself. Seeming happiest when in a melancholy mood, their progressive leanings are tamed by a modest but beautifully evident sense of balance, allowing only the voice to dominate, which is exactly how it should be, so there.

Though a few months away from her debut album in September, Halima’s already made her point this morning with the starkly appreciative applause she’s received and we can comfortably predict a return next year with the odds in her favour. I reckon they should name a kebab in her honour.

Paul Mills

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