BANKS’ ‘London’ EP Is Icy Hot & You Should Not Sleep On It

By now we’ve written about Los Angeles-based singer BANKS a few times, but today (September 10) she drops her London EP, so it’s another chance for us to bring the alluring R&B talent to your attention. Like her tour-mate The Weeknd, her songs are blanketed with fog and treat empty space like an instrument, but where Abel Tesfaye channels that into bleakness and depravity, BANKS evokes something warmer, closer to heartbreak and yearning.

Her 4-track EP wastes no time setting up this aesthetic on the lurching opener and lead single “Waiting Game.” From there, each track builds on and bends the formula set forth in that opening mission statement — it’s all part of one world, but it’s not one trick. By the time you get to EP closer “Change,” she’s sneakily transformed from a female Weeknd protege to something closer to Miguel or The xx. And that’s thanks to her ear for production as much as it is her vocal range.

BANKS’ London EP is available now on iTunes. Head below to stream “This Is What It Feels Like,” a song that fits neatly between Purity Ring‘s syrupy electro-pop deconstructions and Timbaland‘s brittle space-R&B, resulting in something altogether hypnotic.

BANKS — “This Is What It Feels Like” (Produced by Lil Silva & Jamie Woon)