New music to listen to this week: Normanton Street

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Normanton Street (Press image)

Based in Brighton, Normanton Street are Ned Archibong, Nicholson Davids, Phoebe Freya, and Nico Standing - are four piece hip hop and soul group

In the last 18 months, they’ve played gigs and festivals across the UK and Europe, and opened for the likes of Talib Kweli and Kate Tempest, and are gearing up for the release of their EP Life's Real.

While they were hanging out in Texas for SXSW Festival they shot the video for their single ‘Angelene' which we're premiering today - check it out and let us know what you think.

The band says of the EP: “It's inspired by the mixture of both everyday trivial things such as the family parties mentioned on 'Rakim' as well as the serious life events that you'll find on 'The Interlude'. We also wanted to create a body of work that had both a nice live feel to it while maintain a lot of the soulful vibe.

“We were influenced by the usual hip-hop music we love as well as 70's jazz records that have plenty of space yet still make you want to make moves and dance.”

Q&A with Normanton Street

What are you listening to at the moment?

Nicholson: A lot of grime. Mainly AJ Tracey and Cadet.

Ned: I'm listening to an Mc from Bradford called Blazer Boccle. I'm also listening to a French artist we played with called Tennin - It's great discovering new music.

Phoebe: I'm listening to James blake, Alyss and Tom Misch, and I'm always listening to Nina Simone, Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill, that never changes

What are your plans for summer?

Phoebe : Our plans for the summer are looking great! back To play at Soundwave in Croatia and a little tour around that.

Nicholson: We're going to be playing a few festivals in the UK and heading out to a few countries around Europe for more shows. Really looking forward to it, especially Croatia. On top of that we'll be playing the material from 'Life's Real' at the live shows and potentially working on one or two remixes.

What was the first gig you ever played, and what’s been the best so far?

Nicholson: The first actual gig was at the London Unity in the Hanover area of Brighton. We were given a free curry I think, remember that vividly. Best gig for me is probably the first time we played at Gwdihw in Cardiff. The energy was ridiculous, never seen such a small room make so much noise and dance like that. I reckon some our best gigs are yet to come especially once we start playing tracks from 'Life's Real'.

Phoebe: The first gig I personally played was in a tiny jazz pub in Bristol called the Old Duke. I was terrified and played 'Cry me a River' by Ella Fitzgerald very badly on guitar. The best for me has been our headline show at Birthdays in Dalston recently.

Ned: It's tough deciding my favorite gigs. I'd probably have to say Soundwave Festival last year, it was special, it was really hot, we drove all the way there in a Megane - we're back again this summer, I'm really excited. Whenever we play in our adopted hometown of Brighton it's always special also. We did an impromptu set at Kemptown carnival the other day. It was a bit mad - but fantastic.

Normanton Street's EP Life's Real is out on 15 July