For film buffs, the name Tuesday Weld evokes memories of the blonde bombshell who starred in 1960s and '70s films like "Sex Kittens Go to College," "Pretty Poison" and "I Walk the Line." Stephen Coates, aka (The real) Tuesday Weld, must have been a fan. His music encapsulates her work: sumptuous and seductive.
Graduating from the Royal Academy in visual arts, London-based Coates branched off into music in 1997 with several EPs and worked on movie soundtracks for the BBC. His new album, "At the House of the Clerkenwell Kid," is a heady mix of breathy vocals, hypnotic beats and stylish sampling from '60s lounge, and '30s and '40s jazz.
Because of his heavy emphasis on sampling and tape loops, there will be those who try to compare Coates to artists like Beck or Cornelius. This would be inaccurate and misleading. The loops on "Clerkenwell Kid" are drawn almost exclusively from early bossa nova and scratchy big band, circa World War II.