Ben Westbeech

Ben Westbeech makes his very own kind of quirky, rough-around-the-edges soul music. After a slew of identikit singer songwriters warbling on about loves lost, it’s refreshing to find a genuine artist with a beautiful voice, singing amazing songs about being young in Britain all over razor sharp production. It’s not easy to categorise, but it’s what happens when a kid who was classically trained til aged 18 in cello, voice and piano grows up and delves into hip hop, dance music and sample-based beats.

“A shining star of British soul emerges.” Q Magazine

Whatever you call it, 2am one rainy night at Creamfields, Gilles Peterson was sitting in his car with a friend pestering to play him a new demo. It was one of those ‘You’ve really got to here this!’ scenarios – except this time it was true. The artist was Ben and he was signed up to Gilles’ brand  new imprint Brownswood Recordings a few weeks later.  There’s something fresh and unusual about Ben’s productions but at the same time they’re very accessible. Intuitively musical, he builds tracks in his bedroom studio using a mix of samples and his own live playing, including piano and guitar. The result is beautifully listenable contemporary pop. Starting his journey in Bristol, an uncommonly fertile ground for new British sounds, Ben is constantly pushing the boundaries and merging genres…. aided and abetted by DJ Die and Clipz (of Full Cycle/Reprazent fame) who were key players in developing the original sound.

“Flutters like John Legend with a British indie lilt…an assured debut” The Observer

His debut LP – ‘Welcome To The Best Years Of Your Life’, released on Brownswood Recordings on 2007 cemented Ben’s status as one of the UK’s most exciting prospects working on the fringes of pop. ‘So Good Today’ and ‘Hang Around’ are perfect pop gems, certified D&B anthem ‘Get Closer’ raises roofs on the regular and the remainder of the album skips endearingly between carefree ditties and bare instrumental hip hop beats. As for the assorted remixes from Karizma, Dixon, MJ Cole, Switch, Domu and Osunlade? Well, they all bump like billy-o of course.

Constantly working on new material, genuinely excited about new music, collaborations and ideas, Ben is a newcomer with a fresh sound, tons of energy and the talent to support it. It’s a pretty good start, we reckon…