Dean: F3miii’s electro-R&B glitter-bomb is smooth and delectable

To be certain, F3miii is one of the most singular artists to come out of Dublin in recent memory. Being a man apart is not automatically a good thing, of course, but in this particular case, the originality is matched by the delectability.

There’s a sense of modernity to F3miii’s distinctive style of self-produced electro-R&B. It’s slick and coherent but, crucially, never soulless, mostly because the singer’s easy melisma always manages to convey the right emotions.

A list of his stylistic forefathers is very easy to compile – Aaliyah, Frank Ocean, Miguel, et al. Yet nobody I can think of feels like a direct comparison. Perhaps it’s because F3miii (pronounced Femi) draws in such a wide net of influences. There are blasts of 1980s-esque synth patches, a fondness for light acoustic guitar licks that call to mind Craig David at his apex, gentle club beats reminiscent of South African amapiano, a subgenre that mixes house with lounge music. And that’s just the start of it.

Not yet concerned with a long-form project, F3miii releases music strictly in single-song servings. (If and when an album does come, it’ll be a capital-E Event.) His latest loosie is “Say My Name”, a short, airy slice of contemporary R&B featuring a fat bassline, swirling keys and gorgeous sense of snap, equally ideal for late night summer drives and post-club comedowns. F3miii embeds his voice right into the beat, programming in super catchy falsetto yelps of, “My name! My name!” to the rhythm of the pristine drums. “Why you playing stupid?” he asks the person on the other side of this particular lovers’ tiff. “Can you just say my name?”

There’s star quality here, that’s for sure, yet his biography is currently vague. What we do know is that F3miii’s first forays into performing music came when he joined a local gospel choir. He credits these experiences with developing his confidence and stage presence. At age 12, he was given a guitar, turning to YouTube to teach him how to play it. Perhaps this tuition inspired the strummed chord changes of his song “In My Head”.

There was also the influence of a music teacher named Mr O’Connor, not necessarily for his lessons – hey, I’m sure they were very instructive ­– but for the regular appearances he’d make on RTÉ playing traditional music. F3miii would see Mr O’Connor performing on the television screen, knowing that he wanted to emulate him.

Graduating to music-making, F3miii’s inaugural release was “Beautiful”, which he posted to Soundcloud six years ago. I don’t always like highlighting an artist’s early bedroom recordings as they’re often too raw for consumption. “Beautiful”, though, is clearly worthy of examination. The song bares an aesthetic interest that has been evidence in F3miii ever since: an icy sense of cool underpinned by open-hearted emotion. Whether an artistic choice, limitations of the equipment he was using, or just young trepidation, his voice is barely audible, but tender and gorgeous, a saint singing to a woman in the wind.

F3miii has since been featured at the annual Ireland Music Week showcase; his live credits include sets at Forbidden Fruit and the Trinity Ball. Meanwhile, his songs are doled out with no consistent release schedule. There’s a sense they’re going from his brain to your feed as quickly as possible as he hones his craft in real time.

There are many highlights. I’m partial to “So Good”, from 2021. A piece of retro perfection, F3miii’s soulful harmonies spin over a beat that could have been lifted from the late 1990s catalogue of super producer Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins (Brandy and Monica, Destiny’s Child).

His most widely circulated track to date is “LOSTWITHOUTMARIA”, a sensual 1980s-style synth-pop glitter-bomb. Veering from high-pitched singing to a quick-fire half-rapped vocal style, F3miii pleads with the eponymous Maria to give him another chance.

And on the thumping, dark-edged club jam “From Your Eyes (Remix)”, a collaboration with Dún Laoghaire producer Chameleon, his voice is shattered into 1,000 pieces and reassembled in various tones, timbers and speeds over the smoky haze of the beat.

It must be said, not all of F3miii’s experiments are successes: His usually skilful touch with keyboard riffs deserts him on the abrasive “Bad 4 My Health”. But maybe that’s what can happen with a filter-less release schedule. F3miii is still emerging, still experimenting, still testing his sonic boundaries. But take his small body of work together and there’s no doubt about it, this is the kind of new groove to woo us to smithereens.