Heatseeker: Sampha

If you were to ask who has the smoothest voice in the underground right now you’d be hard pressed to get past London’s Sampha Sisay. He’s had a busy year softly serenading crowds around the globe with Young Turks label mates Jessie Ware and SBTRKT. The 24-year-old featured heavily on SBTRKT’s 2011 release with tracks like Hold On aping the dreamy bass-driven sounds of James Blake and The XX.

Three years down the track that album still sounds like the future, and Sampha has gone on to feature on tracks for Jessie Ware and on Too Much and The Motion from Drake’s highly acclaimed album Nothing Was The Same, not to mention his own Dual EP which was released mid last year and is slowly gathering momentum.

The ever thoughtful singer-songwriter has started 2014 off strong, he’s one of five to have been acknowledged by the BBC Sound Of 2014 along with heavyweights and Australian radio favourites Sam Smith, Ella Eyre and Banks – there’s also talk of a lot of new work in the early months. Needless to say we expect a heavy presence on FBI and Triple J, Triple R and the commercials over the course of the year.