You may not tell from the patois she chats in, but Sharon Stern, aka Miss Red, comes from the palmy seaport of Haifa. A huge fan of sound system culture since her teens, when she would never miss local crew Easy Rider playing ‘80s rub-a-dub and ragamuffin in a tiny bar, Sharon started almost by accident, by toasting on beats her friends made. It was through these homemade experiments that Easy Rider noticed how sick her voice was and invited her into the dancehall world. And then the encounter that pushed her in international waters: it was 2011 and British producer Kevin Martin was playing in a crammed bar in Tel Aviv, when our girl approached him, demanded the microphone and wowed him and everybody else. This is how The Bug and Miss Red started their fruitful collaborations, which brought her first to London and then to Berlin, where she lives now.
Don’t expect the sort of sunny, relaxed music you find on compilations sold at the beach: their take on dancehall is warped and abrasive. Miss Red’s debut mixtape, “Murder”, devised by Stern and produced by Martin, is dystopian science fiction, twisted and futuristic, with acid electro riddims kindly provided by an impressive group of people, Mark Pritchard, Andy Stott, Evian Christ, Stereotyp, Mumdance and The Bug himself. It’s mutant creature, old school, new school, which doesn’t belong to any place but was brought up by many.
Listen to title track below and marvel at Miss Red’s incredible fluid, squeaky flow. Riddim by Mark Pritchard.
Miss Red – Murder (NSFW) from theQuietus on Vimeo.
“Murder” is out now. You can download the mixtape in exchange of your email at miss-red.com.
