New band of the week: Grace Mitchell (No 71)

Hometown: Portland, Oregon.

The lineup: Grace Mitchell.

The background: Grace Mitchell’s slow, narcotically languid cover of Hall & Oates’ Maneater from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty soundtrack was her introduction to the world. Her 2014 debut EP, Design, posited her as a Lana/Banks hybrid: promising, if a little generic. Her new EP, Raceday, is a considerable improvement, featuring music that would belong on any best-of-2015 new-artist playlist alongside Alina Baraz, Kali Uchis, Little Simz, Georgia, Laura Clock, Natasha Kmeto, Noa, Tabanca and all the others making this a particularly vibrant time for rising female musicians operating at the blurred border between electronica, R&B, hip-hop, dubstep and pop.

We said “promising”: she’s still only 18, which will surprise you when you hear her voice. If you like sultry sadness, you’ve come to the right place. It’s the way she sings, with a calm resignation that suggests unfulfilled longing may be her forte, and what she sings about: one of her tracks is called NoLo, which according to Urban Dictionary is “an abbreviation of the term No Love”, one used “to declare a status of being single or not wanting to fall in love” and even, in some cases, expressing “the lack of belief in love itself” – today’s youth-speak for anhedonia.

Mitchell is more than just another Big Voice soaring sorrowfully over other people’s work. She has her own recording studio in Oregon, where she plays keyboards, drum pads and guitar, and writes the lyrics (and presumably the topline melodies), although she’s not entirely self-sufficient like Georgia or Clock. Morgan Taylor Reid, a sidekick of Lady Gaga’s RedOne, produced Design, while Raceday had Mark Foster (of Foster the People) and Rich Costey (Muse, Flying Lotus) at the controls. Whatever the setup, it’s working: she’s signed to Republic, home to Lorde, Taylor Swift, and Jessie J, and she’s supporting The Weeknd in London on 23 September. This is, in the words of that other great exponent of icy electronica Martine McCutcheon, her perfect moment.

Jitter, from Raceday, is the track that is most exciting credible music industry insiders (and Zane Lowe, boom boom!), who are hailing it one of the songs of the year. Put it this way: we had someone lined up for this column today that we really, really wanted to feature, but as soon as we heard Jitter, they got bumped. It’s classic dance-pop that could have come from any number of eras. It starts with scratchy cut-up vocals recalling Nu Shooz’s I Can’t Wait or Krush’s House Arrest. The beat is, yes, jittery, in an 80s electro way, or a glitchy 2010s way. The voice is half-spoken: conversational, intimate, as though Mitchell is letting us in on a secret, even if we might not speak the language: “slizzard”, anyone? (apparently it denotes a state of inebriation). Then there’s a bridge to the chorus, which is fabulous and – warning – contains some French. But actually it’s not the chorus – it’s the pre-chorus! Because there’s another verse (“All these kids are lunatics”), then Mitchell throws in a rap (“I lost all my shit in your bag of tricks” – another young person’s euphemism?), and there’s that pre-chorus again before she sings “I like what you got going on”, and the song explodes.

The title track of the EP is another good one, with its sense of luxuriant foreboding. Mitchell captures the confusion of young adulthood, the desire to live fast and its concomitant disappointments, and makes a dark pop drama out of it. “I sing about relatable subjects like first experiences, obsession, loneliness and some personal stories about my own life,” she tells music blog Pigeons & Planes. “The sound, while pop accessible and sonically palatable, will show its indie influence with experimental samples, abstract structure choices, and at times a lo-fi portrayal … but not all the time.” Does Taylor know she’s coming?

The buzz: “Still The Best New Indie-Pop Star You’re Not Talking About (Yet)”.

The truth: We like what she’s got goin’ on.

Most likely to: Make you jitter.

Least likely to: Spend a day at the races.

What to buy: The Raceday EP is out now via Casablanca/Republic.

File next to: Lorde, Natasha Kmeto, Halsey, Banks.

Links: soundcloud.com/imgracemitchell.

Ones to watch: Sam Sure, Patawawa, DJ Taye, Tabanca, Lottery Winners.