Kelela Covers Incubus With A String Quartet

The club and R&B experimenter Kelela is a bit of a futurist. You could say that she's really interested in whatever tomorrow brings. But right now, we get a fascinating chance to see her reach into her past. Kelela released her excellent album new avatar over the summer. To promote it, she recently stopped by LA's Spotify Music Studios, and that's where she busted out an Incubus cover. It's not a surprise to cover someone else's song in a Spotify session. That's what everyone does. But it's cool to learn that Kelela feels some visceral connection to Y2K-era alt-rock hunk Brandon Boyd. With a string quartet and an acoustic guitarist behind her, Kelela sang a hypnotic, locked-in version of "Mexico," a deep cut from Incubus' big 2001 album Morning View. In that same visit to Spotify's Live Room, Kelela also performed the new avatar single "idea 1." Watch both performances below.new avatar is out now on Warp.