THE CUTTING-EDGE

From major stars to cult heroes, these players are experimenting across multiple genres, from jazz to metal and beyond.

- JONATHAN HORSLEY

TOM MISCH

LONDON-BORN TOM MISCH is something of a modern-day renaissance man, whose talents include DJ-ing, playing the piano and violin and having impressive vocal chops. But what separates the 27-year-old singersongwriter-producer from his peers is his dexterity with the electric guitar, from which he effortlessly blends contemporary jazz, neo-soul, funk and R&B, his chameleonic style supplying an organic feel to his otherwise beatfocussed sound.

Misch studied jazz guitar at London's Trinity Laban Conservatoire, and his fingerstyle approach of using alternating chords spliced with short licks has formed the basis of some of his most well-loved compositions. A superfan of iconic crate-digging producer J Dilla, Misch uses modern tech to create lush worlds of texture, often multi-tracking his guitar atop washed-out synth pads and string drones. He frequently pulls from his affection for hip-hop by creating beds of loops and samples for his improvisational noodling, and his love of R&B gives his lead phrasing a strong melodic quality. His understanding of funk often finds him purposefully playing behind the beat, a technique that's easy to identify but harder to emulate.

A good example of Misch's sonic world-building through layered guitar parts comes from his appearance in a Fact magazine video, where he has 10 minutes on the clock to create a beat from scratch on a digital audio workstation. Armed with a vintage semi-hollow Gibson six-string, he first records a funky bassline across the lower frets, which he pitches an octave down using a plug-in. He then adds clean, jazzy chord inversions on top, which he pitches up to emulate the sound of an electric piano.