Sampha at the Hollywood Palladium. Yet another South London artist. What is it about South London right now that makes it such a hot bed of musical talent, particularly in the soul / funk / jazz / leftfield zones? Think Tom Misch, Yussef Dayes, Kamaal Williams, King Krule, Kae Tempest, Greentea Peng, Loyle Carner, Black Midi, Dry Cleaning etc etc What are they putting in the water south of the river? As a North Londoner I am interested and a tad ‘well jel’.

Since first hearing Sampha guesting with Sbtrkt over ten years ago it was clear we had a major talent on our hands. Something about his voice – soulful, fragile with a modern timbre – seemed to encapsulate the frailty of the times. Then in 2017 – with his debut album ‘Process’ – Sampha went on to win the Mercury Prize. Alongside his voice, the musical production is very clever and contemporary. It’s like all the flotsam and jetsam of London music from the last few decades – dubstep, drum and bass, UK garage, broken beat, jazz – have been gathered and twisted into something new and distinctly urban. And it’s gathering a lot of attention, Sampha even guested with Kendrick Lamar on his last album.

If any proof that Sampha knew his London roots was needed, it came via his cover on the night of ‘Gabriel’ by Roy Davis Junior – an absolute beast of a track in the UK garage cannon that first came out in 1996. It was the perfect choice, a fitting starter dish – bass heavy, urban, melancholic – to the Sampha main course.

The show was billed as ‘in the round’ with Sampha and his band playing in the middle of the crowd on a circular stage. It was quite a brave choice. It fitted to try something different from the traditional ‘band faces crowd’ format which chimes with Sampha’s genre agnostic music. For a photographer it made things a little bit tricky with no photo pit and difficulty getting close alongside generally poor lighting. For a spectacle it worked as the band played in circle facing each other, the rythms syncopating outwards and Sampha – when he wasn’t behind his keyboard – walking around singing and vibeing to the audience. On the downside, often the band would have their backs to half the audience at any one time which might work against the atmosphere.

Musically the show was flawless. Veering from fragile urban soul on ‘(No One Knows Me) Like the Piano’ to bangers like ‘Blood On Me’ – perhaps the perfect ode to the darker side of London with the opening lines ‘gray hoodies they cover their heads, I can’t see their faces..’ – Sampha song by song drew the knowing crowd closer. LA saxophonist Kamasi Washington came on for a couple of numbers and he played my favourite song of the new album – ‘Spirit 2.0’. Sampha’s ascendancy continues and it’s thoroughly deserved.