Music | Spooky Black

You know when you're searching at the bottom of your handbag, looking for your housekeys/Oyster Card/Tampon and you stumble across an unopened Starburst and your heart immediately swells with sheer happiness at the joy that life can bring?

Well, that's how I felt upon stumbling across Spooky Black a few days earlier on Soundcloud. I had a Cyril Hahn mix playing innocently in the background, and suddenly these chilling vocals and trippy beats caught my attention. I scoured the comments to see one person enthusiastically comment 'SPOOKY BLACK'. This cryptic comment could easily have been a description of the song itself as it does have a pretty, well spooky black sound... but I gave Googling it a try and was rightfully rewarded by the Soundcloud gods.

His stream is pure dishevelled R&B sexiness, his Twitter profile like one belonging to That Creepy Kid in Class That No One Speaks to But Everyone Is Shit-Scared Of.


On watching his video, directed by Gabe Broderick, my love for Mr Black has reached fever pitch. His wardrobe of choice is collated of garments seemingly dug from the bottom of your local Barnardo's Charity Shop bargain bin, the video looks as though it was shot on a Motorola Razr and JVC camcorder and editing completed in Window's 98 Movie Maker. Deliberately low-quality, with awkward framing (crotch-shots anyone?) and unexpected jarring interaction between subject and camera, makes for one of the most haunting videos I've ever laid eyes on.

Perfect.

Having had the joy of reading the comments on this vid, it seems we're all a bit divided on why a skinny, awkward white boy is sporting a doo-rag, a caricature gold chain and cavorting about in such a desolate setting. Seemingly a parody of the 90s R&B Sweetboy, Spooky Black couldn't be further from this stereotype... and I reckon that's the point. Either way, the video is refreshingly weird and it works.

Peep his video below for 'dj khaled is my father' <--- perfect title by the way



Here's some of my favourites via his Soundcloud:


And a link to his EP is here

I'm in love with a Spook from St Paul, Minnesota.