Njomza

When we first heard NJOMZA, my esteemed colleague Constant Gardner was singing the praises of her woozily erotic “High.” Some four months later, the singer has rolled out her debut mixtape, GOLD LION.

NJOMZA’s alluring performances and a cohesive, moody collection of beats (primarily from Chicago production team THEMpeople) make for an impressive debut statement, a set that careens through love and lust, sonically tracking the thin line between agony and ecstasy. It’s imperfect–perhaps a bit overlong for this particular sound, a fact highlighted when you hold GOLD LION up against a close comparison like any one of the The Weeknd’s trilogy of mixtapes–but its best moments suggest a promising talent that fits nicely in the current landscape of R&B and the darkest corners of pop. - Pigeons and Planes - Jon Tanners

Rising Chicago singer Njomza presents her new mixtape that dropped earlier this week. Promisingly titled Gold Lion, the projects matches her soulful vocals with eerie, spacey production palette composed by the likes of Elschmitty, THEMpeople, Christo, Mac Miller aka Larry Fisherman and more. Yes, indeed. This is seductive mood music that accompanies the listener to a different space, reminiscent of The Weeknd's already timeless House of Balloons offering. After listening to the opus below, it becomes clear why Mac Miller signed this talent to his Most Dope label. Enjoy! - HypeTrak - Petar Kujundzic

Chicago signee to Mac Miller's label makes purple-drank R&B ballad of the season

We thought it made sense to end the year at New Band of the Day with a record that sums up everything we've liked over the last 12 months. Njomza's High is a ballad that could if you gave it a cursory listen be described as "smooth" or "chilled". Closer inspection reveals it to be part of that new wave of slow-motion, chopped and screwed soul that suggests a torpor that comes from the imbibing of certain medicinal opiates. It is a thing of intoxicating beauty, not to mention a showcase for the sort of studio-perfected Auto-Tuned vocals that flip the bird to the Autocue reality TV brigade with their "authentic" shrieking.

The lyrics that allude teasingly to sex are classic quiet storm/slow jam tropes while the purple production, courtesy of Mr Music, all dank spaces evoking sad isolation, percussive detonations and chipmunk squeaks, are pure Drake/Weeknd. High is one of the best examples of its enervated R&B kind since Syd tha Kyd went AWOL from Odd Future to make Flashlight.

Only 18, Njomza (pronounced "Nee-yom-za" – it means "youth" in Albanian, apparently) has just signed to rapper Mac Miller's Most Dope label and High is her first release, lifted from her imminent mixtape, Gold Lion. There are other tracks by her, here and there, online, such as her demo Hello May that she worked on with her producer friend Jonny Mendez, which sounds less hazy and queasy and suggests Njomza has one eye on a more conventional entertainment career – it's like a Taylor Swift song with eerie, spacey production. There's a track called Someone Like You that sounds less like Adele's song than it does the Weeknd's Rolling Stone. Whatever, it's gorgeous. Elsewhere there is a feature on a Banks tune called Take Me and a YouTube cover of Drake's Take Care ft Rihanna that had most viewers contemplating her cleavage when really they should have been focusing on her vocals and her general aesthetic, which posits Njomza as a post-Brainfeeder balladeer, Miley Cyrus meets Flying Lotus. And you can quote us on that, or put it on your mixtape.

The buzz: "High is replete with sexy, gorgeous melodies and has a trippy, purp-drank instrumental."

The truth: High will make you giddy.

Most likely to: Duet with Syd tha Kyd.

Least likely to: Duet with Sid the Sexist.

What to buy: The Gold Lion EP is released in the New Year.

File next to: Syd tha Kyd, Adele, the Weeknd, Miley Cyrus.

Links: facebook.com/NJOMZAmusic. - The Guardian UK - Paul Lester