22-year-old singer Mahalia has been hinting at new music for a few weeks now, and fans can finally listen to her EP ‘Isolation Tapes’. Released today, 1st May, the EP consists of three songs which have never been heard before.
Beginning with ‘BRB’, the R&B singer performs a song about her life as a touring musician, which already has 5,000 plays on Spotify. This is followed by ‘Plastic Plants’ and ‘Too Nice’, both of which stand out for their strong drumbeats. Each track combines gentle acoustic instruments with electronic drums, fitting in perfectly with the genre.
Mahalia has been leading up to this release since her post on 6th April which mentioned that she had unheard music from some time ago which she wanted to share with her fans. Fans were even treated to a short clip from the ‘BRB’ music video last week. Then, on Monday 27th April, it was announced that the EP would be available today.
Since the singer was unable to film a music video given the current lock-down which is in place in the UK due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, Mahalia decided to create a video from home tapes including clips from tours, photoshoots, and more. She announced the video in a social media post in which she said “I love this song and I couldn’t wait to make a video for it. Because of the circumstances, I couldn’t… so I made one myself.” The video went up at midday today, and has already reached 13,000 views.
The EP was released at midnight last night, so Mahalia held an Instagram livestream to celebrate with her fans. She chatted with viewers, answered questions, and listened to music. This also kicked off her 22nd birthday, which is today.
When the coronavirus began to spread, the artist was in the midst of her ‘Love and Compromise’ tour following the release of the album in 2019. Unfortunately, many of the upcoming shows have been cancelled, with others to be confirmed – stay updated on her website.
Recently, Mahalia was featured on YouTube’s ‘Artist on the Rise’ series, in which she along with her friends and family spoke about her rise to fame. The artist signed to her record label, Asylum, at age 13 and began making and releasing music. She has now released two studio albums, reaching number 4 on the UK R&B chart with ‘Love and Compromise’, and she was nominated for the Critic’s Choice Award at the 2020 Brit Awards.