TSHA: Capricorn Sun album review — imbued with warmth and a sense of connection

Clubbing’s version of the great chain of being is, of course, the great chain of DJing. At the bottom is the most basic form of life: the bedroom DJ acquiring skills in the cocoon of the home. Then come more advanced levels — hobbyist DJs playing at friends’ parties, mobile DJs doing weddings and events, DJs with residencies in bars — leading to the deity at the summit: the superstar DJ, topping the bill at palatial Ibiza and Miami Beach nightspots.

Teisha Matthews, aka TSHA, has progressed along most of these stages. Raised in the Hampshire market town Fareham, she took up DJing as a teenager, making homemade mix CDs, then got work playing in bars and at weddings and birthdays. Seeing a gig by the electronic musician Bonobo in 2017 spurred her to produce her own music.

She released her first EP the following year, a song from which was selected by Bonobo for his instalment in Fabric’s long-running series of compilation albums. Meanwhile, she made the jump into clubland, rapidly rising through the ranks with Radio 1 airplay, an Ibiza residency and her own Fabric compilation, an acid house-themed set that came out this year.

Capricorn Sun is her debut solo album. “The Light” smoothly accelerates into a big house anthem with pitch-shifted gospel vocals, a bawling source of energy amid the fluid beats and piano chords. “Dancing in the Shadows” sets a powerful turn from guest singer Clementine Douglas against an intensifying backdrop of UK garage beats and acid basslines.

Malian singer Oumou Sangaré appears on “Water”, chopping through its fast-flowing rhythms like a canoeist. “Sister”, prompted by Matthews’ discovery during lockdown of a previously unknown half-sibling, is an arms-flung-wide epic with euphoric vocals by Ell Murphy. Emotional buttons are pressed with surging crescendos and tempo changes, but the results don’t sound cynical or coercive. Capricorn Sun is imbued with warmth and a sense of connection, qualities often lacking from those in the upper reaches of the great chain of DJing.

★★★★☆

‘Capricorn Sun’ is released by Ninja Tune