Live Review: Perera Elsewhere's doom-laden take on 50 Cent's 'Candy Shop'

A doom-laden, minimalist experimental pop cover of 50 Cent’s ‘Candy Shop’ sounds off-kilter. It’s a hundred strides left of centre with ‘Candy Shop’ being a near vintage bopping hip hop classic. Yet, PERERA ELSWHERE’S story of the song's inception is a three-week hike away from the norm. After accepting a role on Magnificent Century, which Sasha Perera describes as ‘the Middle East’ Game of Thrones’ – the only other person on set with her (in Turkey) who spoke English was a translator. Perera Elsewhere and the translator both had a miserable time and the translator would always sing a depressing version of ‘Candy Shop’. Perera describes it as ‘being her theme song’ – so she took it home with her a recorded it in full.

‘Karam’ takes only the lyrical structure of 50 Cent’s classic, drawing out the integral chorus into a repeated drone, the removal of the bravado and insistence on partying turns the lyrics on their head. They’re no longer loosely subdued innuendo but chilling in a textured soundscape, ‘hitting the spot’ seems to mean so much more than instant gratification now. Perera’s knack for layering her sounds together is impeccable, there isn’t a moment left bare in the entire track but that’s not to say it is in anyway overstuffed. Be it the stretched out ring of a chime, hum of the cautiously plodding bass or the wind-like synths – it’s an intriguing recipe. Everything sounds organic, sounds grown separately and plucked for consumption from the world around her, now remarkable by arrangement. It’s much like the origins of this track, Perera identified with the translators lament in ‘Candy Shop’, she found something beautiful and expanded on it until it was her own.

‘Karam’ is one of the tracks from Perera’s sophomore album All of This which came out on the 2^nd of June. It’s available on all formats here . She’s currently touring Europe and hopefully she’ll find time to kick it to the other hemisphere to share her doom-folk.

WORDS BY LLOYD CRACKETT

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