BINA.

11th March 2022

Rising Alt-R&B star, BINA. supported Ego Ella May at her Lafayette show, of which you can read my review here. This Is Not A Film was an EP I had discovered earlier this year so I was thrilled to find out BINA. would be supporting Ego. She stepped onto the stage wearing a Jennifer Esson top made of safety pins and Swarovski crystals, white Urban Outfitters snow pants and Doc Martens. Holding a lime green Fender guitar, she definitely looked like a star and her performance helped her shine even brighter.

She introduces herself and begins with Boundaries. A deep, smooth voice that evokes confidence wraps around bars like Life runs in cycles and I ride it like a bicycle / I’m serious, gotta pipe down, I move frosty like icicle. Other lines like Are you tired of me, me, me? help display vulnerability using this echo-like vocal technique and it really indicates her songwriting skill, the different phonations really help to bring everything together. She can also scat which is refreshing to see such a young artist use this vocal technique, her delivery will transport you straight to a jazz club.

Just A Sec is up next, that she describes as “me trying to figure out how the hell I feel about, you know, young heartbreak, you know the vibes.” Seeing her pour her heart out under blue and red lights felt like listening to an intimate diary entry. The chorus is infectious and really initiates that BINA. truly deserves to be so much more than just a rising star, the UK has never seen such phenomenal talent. The fluidity of jazz, Neo-soul and R&B that she fuses together seamlessly really demonstrates the fact she is destined for great things in the music industry, you all better start paying attention now!

Mercedes to Hades, another song from This Is Not A Film, follows. She is just at the mic stand, Fender absent, with Winnie on guitar. Another carefully crafted, catchy chorus met by her rich, heartfelt voice. She gives a shoutout to Lex Amor and Intlekt, her collaborators on this masterpiece. Do Not Disturb, an unreleased song about “the depths of depression and all them tings,” she discusses reacquainting herself with herself. I immediately recognise this song from a TikTok snippet. She expresses her deep rooted emotions accompanied by an egg shaker. It is truly a song that reveals the candor of depression. Raw and relatable, upon it’s release it will definitely spark honest conversations about the realities of depression.

She puts her guitar back on to perform another unreleased tune, Gotham. This feels well timed with the recent release of the latest Batman film. She hits a beautiful run followed by more harmonious scatting. Gave you my love and then you took the piss, a line from the chorus, will be able to resonate with many if not all of her listeners upon the songs release. You really feel BINA.’s emotion occupy the entirety of Lafayette and even more so when she scats.

To conclude, Lafayette is definitely a venue I can see BINA. selling out on her own one day. She truly deserves to headline. Her music emotionally dips its toe into a pool of Neo-soul, jazz and R&B. Her lyrics feel bespoke to her experiences as a twenty-something yet simultaneously relatable. Her scatting makes her music one of a kind, for it is not the chosen technique of many in the modern music world, but it’s one that completes BINA.’s music like the final piece of a puzzle.