Kindness

Kindness is Adam Bainbridge, an artist whose three proper albums under the alias -- World, You Need a Change of Mind (2012), Otherness (2014), and Something Like a War (2019) -- have refined and mutated an intimate yet inclusive form of art-pop informed most by post-disco R&B. Although Bainbridge writes, produces, sings, and plays several instruments, they have been keen to spotlight collaborators (such as Kelela, Robyn, and Jazmine Sullivan), and have in turn been sought to contribute to recordings by numerous peers, including Solange's Billboard 200-topping A Seat at the Table. Bainbridge has also championed their inspirations as a DJ and documentarian, and through sampling, with songs by Trouble Funk, Cherrelle and Alexander O'Neal, and Todd Rundgren among their sources.Originally from Peterborough and based in East London, Adam Bainbridge was the tour DJ for Test Icicles. Then known as Jitset, Bainbridge also remixed the band's "Catch It" and tracks by Damn Arms and Lo-Fi-Fink. They first recorded as Kindness in the U.S., as the recipient of a fellowship at the Philadelphia Institute for Advanced Study. During their month-long artist residency, they made Live in Philly, circulated on MP3 and a limited quantity of CD-Rs. Like every subsequent Bainbridge project, it involved numerous guest musicians, most notably Kurt Vile and Natalie Mering (aka Weyes Blood). Bainbridge's first commercially released recording, an atmospheric and galloping dancefloor version of the Replacements' "Swingin Party," followed two years later on the Moshi Moshi label. Bainbridge then set up the Female Energy label and signed to major-label Polydor, with releases in the U.S. licensed to Terrible and Casablanca. The singles "Gee Up" (originally the B-side of "Swingin Party") and "Cyan" led to the 2012 release of World, You Need a Change of Mind, an album co-produced, engineered, and mixed by French house catalyst Philippe Zdar. The next year, Bainbridge continued a long-term association with ex-Test Icicle Devonte Hynes as a contributor to Blood Orange's Cupid Deluxe. Minus the involvement of Polydor and Zdar, Bainbridge resumed activity as Kindness with the self-released 2014 LP Otherness (supported in the U.S. by Mom+Pop), on which they were joined by Hynes, Robyn, and Kelela. Between their second and third full-lengths, Bainbridge lent crucial support to Solange's A Seat at the Table, Robyn's Honey, and Blood Orange's Freetown Sound and Negro Swan. Their Zdar-mixed Something Like a War arrived in 2019 with Bahamadia, Robyn, Jazmine Sullivan, Cosima, and Seinabo Sey all on-board.
© Andy Kellman /TiVo