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EDITORIAL REVIEWS On May 19 Las Vegas-based artist SHAMIR will release his first full-length album, Ratchet, on XL Recordings. Including the widely loved single "On The Regular," the 10-track release is a record about growing up in Vegas, not on the strip but in the desert. With an androgyne croon that recalls Nina Simone, Shamir left the suburbs of Vegas after sending demos to Nick Sylvester, who runs the GODMODE label out of New York. Together they made Northtown, Shamirs debut EP (2014) , and continued their working relationship for Ratchet. Its an ecstatic dance-pop record that also has some dust and age to it, sparkling with the grit of a desert geode.The music is fun even when its mostly introspective, introspective even when its mostly fun. As a young musician, he moves in and out of soul, r&b, house, disco, rap, and pop - in the tradition of artists like Prince, Grace Jones, David Bowie, and Madonna. Genre is a tool for Shamir, not a boundary. Or as Shamir would put it, "It doesnt matter what you sound like - you just have to be you." Theres an obvious fluidity to Shamir. He transcends boundaries - genre, gender, age, geography. If he feels solitary, its because theres literally no one else like him. Shamir recently revealed the video for his brand new single Call It Off. Directed by Philip Hodges as part of the YouTube Music Awards, the joyous clip stars both real-life and puppet Shamir and takes inspiration from his life in Las Vegas, celebrating the desert as a place where we can all be ourselves and run *. "Im not even sure where to begin because I havent been this enthralled with a live performance for a while. The new material displays a Robyn-like irreverence for pop craft, thumping with an urgency and freneticism thats intoxicating." - NPR at SXSW "Shamir completely dominated at SXSW last week. His effortless diva energy surges through the crowd regardless of stage size, venue or hour of the day." - Stereogum Artist & Album Information: In between shifts at Topshop, he put out the "Northtown" EP - named after his hometown - which sold out before it even went on sale. He played his first live show in New York - one of those I Was There kinds of shows, where Shamir was so overcome he came off the stage and gave everyone in the audience a hug. (Hes done the same at every show since.) He signed to XL Recordings, and began working with Nick on the full-length. He temporarily moved into Silent Barn, the DIY arts space in Bushwick. He interned at the XL/Beggars office in New York, where Im told it took months before the other interns even knew he was an artist on the label. He toured Europe with a bunch of our Godmode friends as his backing band, did a BBC session in John Peels old Maida Vale studio, and played Le Grand Journal in France - his first live TV appearance. Theres Shamirs voice of course - and there is nothing else like it - but what strikes people most is just how * nice he is. Out the other side of all this comes "Ratchet," Shamirs first full-length LP. Its a disco-house-r&b marvel. Ecstatic but hardened, urgent but expertly weathered, sparkling with the grit of a desert geode. Its a record about growing up in Vegas, though not the Vegas you think you know. I keep thinking about that pig farm near Shamirs house. The pigs were slaughtered and fed to the casinos. The casinos slop kept the swine fed. This is where he grew up, in the margins of vice and excess. Never has the idiom "diamond in the rough" applied so literally. In this rapid year leading to his debut full-length, we finally get the coming-of-age album we didnt know we needed. "Head In The Clouds" may be where "Ratchet" leaves us hanging. But something tells me Shamirs got his feet on the ground. He just stands that tall.