#afrofuturist albums

[theonlyadawong]

unrelated to everything but everyone who reads this post, you should listen to the entirety of the mothership connection album by parliament :-)

#speakerphone! #oooooooooh you want to listen to the afrofuturist funk album soooooo bad

[samueldelany]

For Ytasha Womack, the Afrofuture Is Now

The writer and filmmaker discusses the blend of theoretical cosmology and Black culture in Chicago’s newest planetarium show.

Ytasha Womack, a screenwriter on “Niyah and the Multiverse,” currently playing at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, is the author of numerous works including “Black Panther: A Cultural Exploration."

By Katrina Miller, New York Times, March 16, 2024.

On Feb. 17, the Adler Planetarium in Chicago unveiled a new sky show called “Niyah and the Multiverse,” a blend of theoretical cosmology, Black culture and imagination. And as with many things Afrofuturistic, Ytasha Womack’s fingerprints are all over it.

Ms. Womack, who writes both about the genre and from within it, has curated Afrofuturism events across the country — including Carnegie Hall’s citywide festival — and her work is currently featured in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Afrofuturism is perhaps most popularly on display in the “Black Panther” films, which immerse viewers in an alternate reality of diverse, technologically advanced African tribes untouched by the forces of colonialism. (In 2023, Ms. Womack published “Black Panther: A Cultural Exploration,” Marvel’s reference book examining the films’ influences.)

But examples of the genre include the science fiction writer Octavia Butler, the Star Trek character Nyota Uhura and the cyborgian songs of Janelle Monáe. Some even envision the immortality of Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman whose cells were taken without consent for what became revolutionary breakthroughs in medicine, as an Afrofuturist parable.

Ms. Womack was one of the scriptwriters for “Niyah and the Multiverse.” She spoke with The New York Times about what Afrofuturism means to her, the process of weaving the genre’s themes with core concepts in physics and how the show aims to inspire. This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

How do you define Afrofuturism?

Afrofuturism is a way of thinking about the future, with alternate realities based on perspectives of the African diaspora. It integrates imagination, liberation, technology and mysticism.

Imagination is important because it is liberating. People have used imagination to transform their circumstances, to move from one reality to another. They’ve used it as a way to escape. When you are in challenging environments, you’re not socialized to imagine. And so to claim your imagination — to embrace it — can be a way of elevating your consciousness.

What makes Afrofuturism different from other futuristic takes is that it has a nonlinear perspective of time. So the future, past and present can very much be one. And that’s a concept expressed in quantum physics, when you think about these other kinds of realities.

Those alternate realities could be philosophical cosmologies, or they could be scientifically explained worlds. How we explain them runs the gamut, depending on what your basis for knowledge is.

Which Afrofuturist works have influenced you?

I think about Parliament-Funkadelic, a popular music collective of the 1970s. As a kid, their album covers were in my basement. A lot of artists during that era — Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Earth, Wind & Fire, Labelle — had these very epic, Afrofuturistic album covers, but Parliament-Funkadelic sticks out. There’s one depicting Star Child, the alter ego of George Clinton, the lead musical artist, emerging from a spaceship. That sort of space-tastic imagery was abounding for me as a kid.

“The Wiz,” a reimagining of “The Wizard of Oz,” was on all the time in my house growing up. It had this fabulosity to it — a heightened dream world that reflected 1970s New York. You had the Twin Towers in Emerald City, the empty lots Dorothy walked through with all the trash, the Wicked Witch running a fashion sweatshop, representing the garment district. The film took an urban landscape and made it fabulous, tying in this theme of Dorothy coming into her own through her journey.

Those are images that had a very strong impact on me. As I matured, I got into house music and dance, and began to see relationships between rhythm, movement, space and time. It’s not always something I can give language to, but it’s certainly become a basis for how I talk about metaphysics, in a physical kind of way.

What inspired your team to create “Niyah and the Multiverse”?

We wanted to tell a story about a young girl named Niyah, who wants to be a scientist and who is figuring out who she is — not just on Earth, but also in the universe.

Niyah looks for insight from her grandparents, who explain some of the symbolism of the African artwork in her home. She thinks about concepts she has learned from her science teacher. And she even meets her future self, who is a theoretical astrophysicist. Together, the two explore some of the more popular multiverse theories that scientists are looking at today.

Which theories are those?

Niyah learns about the many-worlds theory, which is this idea that all of your choices evolve into different universes. The choices you make create new paths, essentially creating multiple existences of yourself.

She learns about bubble theory, which says that after our Big Bang, more universes sort of bubbled off, each with their own laws of physics. Niyah also explores the idea of shadow matter, in which particles get reassembled as similar entities in mirror universes.

So there’s this parallel between Niyah learning about the multiverse and also exploring her own identity through her ancestral heritage.

Right. Because both of these are paths of meaning, different ways of understanding who we are. Afrofuturists tend to think in a way that is accepting of a lot of different realities anyway, so it was a pretty seamless experience to weave the physics and other aspects of the genre together. There’s already this intergenerational, or interdimensional, element to the conversation and the art that comes out of it.

The show is presented in the planetarium dome, which has a 360-degree screen, so it’s very immersive. Stepping into the space and watching the show feels like an interdimensional experience of its own.

The first audience to see it had a very emotional response. Some people were crying. There were Black women in the audience saying they always wanted to see this kind of imagery, that they had wanted to be scientists at one point in time. Others were deeply touched by the vibrancy of the show, of how it was able to bring these multiverse theories to life.

It’s impressive that these physics concepts, which can be difficult for people to understand or relate to, are made so accessible with examples that are not only imaginative but very rooted in Black culture.

Right. And it wasn’t difficult for us to do that, because as Afrofuturists, we operate in that space. It’s just about mirroring a way of being that we have always been immersed in.

I think “Niyah and the Multiverse” expresses that we all have different relationships to space and time. We are all looking to understand who we are, where we come from and where we can go in this broader space-time trajectory.

And maybe for some, the show normalizes the idea that there are kids who are Black who dream and are curious about the world. That curiosity can take them in the direction of becoming an artist, or becoming a scientist.

What challenges did you face in tackling the multiverse?

In trying to write some elements of the story, we had to push our own imagination to come up with what a universe might look like if you’re not using the laws of physics that exist in this one. Like, what does it mean to have your particles reassembled into something else? Sometimes we’d come up with ideas for different worlds, and our science consultants would say that already exists.

For me, this shows the beauty of bridging art and science. Artists can give visuals and narratives to ideas that scientists come up with. Or it could happen the other way around: Artists imagine something, and scientists think about what might be needed to support a universe that looks that way.

Image

[violet-moonstone]

if anyone lets me talk about clipping for too long i get so excited that i have to stop myself from tearing up...like not just from excitement but because so much of clipping's work is so dark and honestly horrifying but like my favourite horror it's so fascinating that I can't look away

like splendor and misery to me is not only an afrofuturist album but just as much of a horror album as there existed and addiction to blood and visions of bodies being burned . I was expecting horror from those two albums...but the existential dread of splendor and misery mixed with the darkness of allegory for the transatlantic slave trade hit me right in the gut.

I made the mistake of listening to that album for the first time at like 2 in the morning and I got into this weird panicked state that happens sometimes when I'm up really late and thinking about something upsetting where I feel completely and utterly isolated from the rest of humanity - like nothing else exists and I'm the only consciousness left - and considering that narrative of splendor and misery, that was bound to happen

don't even get me started on "true believer". something about that song freaks me out. it's a beautiful song but I can't handle it most of the time.

one a sidenote, Daveed Diggs was a great choice to play the protagonist of Snowpeircer because that show freaks me out the same way splendor and misery does - something about dystopian, futuristic narratives and complete isolation from the rest of humanity, which is either inaccessible or destroyed, etc etc

"the deep" affects me in much the same way. IMO that song did so much that Black Panther 2 hardly accomplished (although I noticed the similarities right away and I really wished that movie had played out differently).

and then there's the horror of the "story" tracks...all of these people trapped in ongoing narratives of tragedy, trauma, and violence, and THEY'RE ALL INTERCONNECTED. THEY ALL HAPPEN IN THE SAME UNIVERSE BUT YOU HAVE TO PUT THE TIMELINE TOGETHER. ITS SO GOOD.

man, I love clipping

#clipping #daveed diggs #splendor and misery #music #clipping.

[apophine]

They continued to lean into such themes as Egyptian mysticism, space, and Black nationalism, drawing out Ra’s vision of Black culture as rooted in ancient traditions and bound for a cosmic future….Pundits today might deem that aesthetic “Afrofuturist,” though Ra existed long before such a category arrived to classify his art. And if such a term was kicking around back then, there’s a pretty good chance Ra would be pushing at its edges.

The Legendary Album Art of Sun Ra

#yeah i’ve been thinking about janelle monae soooo what #sun ra #music #afrofuturism #leonardcohenofficial

[brucespringsteendotcom]

Do you guys want to hear about this album. The speculative afrofuturist climate change album

[frogndtoad]

Do you have your favorite albums shared in a post somewhere? I've been trying to find new music and the only thing I wouldn't care to listen to are songs that tend towards vulgarity, so I'd really appreciate some recs if you've got some :,)

howdy anon! always happy to share new music - i don't have a post, but a few of my all-timers are:

Stars - Heart maybe my favorite album by my alternatingly favorite band; absolutely atmospheric indie pop mostly about love, for better or for worse (as in contextually. all of the songs rule). plus theres french horn!

Streetlight Manifesto - Everything Goes Numb the ska-punk album so good it took me over half a decade to get into ska fr because nothing else could measure up. absolutely epic horns quite good lyrics. wish i coulda made any of the anniversary shows this year

Clipping. - Splendor & Misery perfect afrofuturist noise rap concept album about a slave spaceship and the sentient ai that controls it and the human who breaks free. probably the least gory clipping album if thats an issue for u. i love listening to static dot jpg

The Mountain Goats - Beat The Champ if there is a theme in this list let it be my love of horns. other alternatingly favorite band, and if you havent checked these guys out what are you even doing sending asks to frogndtoad dot tumblr dot com. this is their concept album about pro wrestling - a lot bigger sounds than some of the earlier lofi stuff, plenty of lines still about getting stabbed or doing stabbing. but to a jaunty little horn feature! i have rotating top goats but this has been it for a bit

Willi Carlisle - Peculiar, Missouri one of my favorite if not my favorite finds of the year. truly truly beautiful folk album i dont even know what else to say here. absolutely so excited for Critterland next year

disclaimer also that i was taken a little aback by the use of the word 'vulgarity' here in my asks on tumblr dot com for a couple reasons but tried at the very least to take ur sentiment as best as i could and provide some good albums i stand by. might not meet your needs but its not esp gorey and its not esp raunchy and i hope that you enjoy

oh also!! i do keep an #album-log tag that i update periodically with roundups of what ive been listening to and how much; theres a few stats there. might try to keep a better maintained recs tag in the new year but mostly i do that at least for myself i just think its fun to share also

#genuinely these are all in my top 10 of albums this may just Be my top 5 as it currently stands (not in order) #pretty respectable genre and vibes spread too. #if you have more specific qs for content lmk! again i have a kneejerk response to your word usage #but i genuinely do love sharing music i love and tried to give enough info here that anyone who might have interest can gauge that. #oh actually re my first tag. the whaler............ but thats not on this list anon i doubt you will appreciate that album. but *i* do...

[mokhosz]

#OnThisDay in 1983, Herbie Hancock released his groundbreaking album “Future Shock” which incorporated rap, hip hop and Afrofuturistic sounds with jazz using innovative music technology. Using a combination of scratching, drum machines, and synthesized keyboards, “Future Shock” sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide. The music video of the hit single “Rockit,” directed by duo Kevin Godley & Lol Crème, also became widely successful for its visionary, futristic aesthetic. The music video for “Rockit” also broke vast new ground, featuring robot-like sculptures and mannequins that walked, danced, gyrated to the music. The video garnered five MTV Video Music Awards in 1984, including Best Concept Video and Best Special Effects.

Hancock, who was born in 1940, helped develop software and pioneer the use of computers in the studio. He used his Memorymoog synthesizer, used to experiment with sounds in the 1980s, which is currently on loan from National Museum of American History in our #NMAAHCFutures exhibition.

v

#Youtube

[agnesandhilda]

metropolis the chase suite: a punchy concept album that's filled with good songs for such a short ep. introduces the overarching sci-fi universe and themes monáe will explore for the next decade. violet stars happy hunting!! was my favorite song for years

the archandroid: slower and more soulful, fades into the background of monáe's discography a bit, but it's still their first full-length album and has got some essential songs (oh, maker, wondaland, etc)

the electric lady: transitions between monáe's overtly afrofuturist work to pop music that you can probably play in front of your family without having to explain too much. has an iconic first half and then a lot of slow songs at the end for some reason.

dirty computer: concludes monáe's suite of metropolis albums, though it's even less explicitly sci-fi. SCREAMS "made by a liberal about the trump administration" but it's fantastic. made the line "mansplaining I fold em like origami" sound badass

age of pleasure: what if I wrote an album all about gay sex

#bolo liveblogs #janelle monáe #janelle monae #I've been a fandroid since I was sixteen I say this all lovingly #dirty computer was the first album I ever personally bought <3 <3 <

[mywifeleftme]

353: Digable Planets // Blowout Comb

Blowout Comb Digable Planet 1994, Capitol

Blowout Comb is the best rap album ever made, and I’ve listened to it hundreds of times, but I’d be lying if I told you I knew the name of every track as it comes on. It’s not that the tracks are same-y, so much as that the record has such an endless, unified groove. No matter how great an individual song is, no matter how much I’d like to hear it again immediately, I never want to disrupt the record’s flow—and besides, there are no skips on Blowout Comb. How do I get at the particular magic at work here? It’s something like this: most everything is so laid back, from the mix tucking the three emcees’ vocals under the frequently analog bass to the way its classic soul and jazz samples are used for texture rather than hooks, that you could loop almost any single track for an hour without it becoming grating. It’s not an album of standout quotables or an iconic persona or killer hooks—it’s one that makes life feel alright, beautiful, and connected to an ancient cool.

Which isn’t to say that it doesn’t knock: the production on “Dog It,” “Jettin’,” “Agent 7,” “Blowing Down” and “9th Wonder” kicks like a rhino’s subwoofer heartbeat, and even the chillest parts feel like floating in a funky aquarium. But the song that has always stood out to me is “Black Ego,” a blissed out seven-minute dream boldly placed at track two. Built on a fluttering sample from jazz guitarist Grant Green’s “Luanna’s Theme” and a Meters’ breakbeat, producers Ish Butler and Dave Darlington layer on live bass, vibraphone, and whispered backing vocals that match the exact hiss of the cymbal hits. The seams between the sampled and live instrumentation disappear, creating a track that feels like it is improvising right alongside the emcees, riding out with a tasty two-minute long jazz guitar solo. Even at seven-minutes, I’d happily play it over—but then the enticing sax loop that opens “Dog It” hits, and Blowout Comb keeps the party rolling on to the next one.

Way back on episode #13 of this series, I covered Black Up, Ish’s 2011 comeback record as Shabazz Palaces. A strange, futuristic album that delves so deeply into glitchy electronic production that it often barely scans as a rap album at all, Black Up is nonetheless a continuation of Blowout Comb’s vision of Black pride and the historical continuum of African American music. If Blowout Comb drew that history into one time-spanning Brooklyn block party, Black Up feels a bit like that party being recalled by a cyborg from an unimaginably advanced Afrofuturist timeline. Between the two, Ish Butler created two of the freshest and most original rap records ever made. He (and his colleagues in both Digable Planets and Shabazz) deserve more mention in any conversation about hip-hop’s all-time greatest visionaries.

353/365

#digable planets #shabazz palaces #ish #ish butler #ishmael butler #'90s music #'90s rap #jazz rap #alternative hip hop #slick like that #music review #vinyl record

[worldsworstmusicnerd]

2023 Album A Day: Day 160/365

The Age of Pleasure • Janelle Monáe

Favorite Track: Float

Thoughts: This album is concentrated “Hot Girl Summer” from top to bottom. After spending over a decade curating this conceptual aesthetic of afrofuturistic sci-fi imagery to narratively tie albums together, Janelle Monáe lets all the pretense and conceptual work wash away under the waves of a laidback, seductive, sun-soaked backdrop of reggae and neo-soul. Monáe has liberated herself, both in the freedom to write music that she wants to make, and in the stories she tells on this album of love and sexuality. It’s the “Wet Hot American Summer” of a whole new generation, and Monáe is not missing out on a moment of it.

#album of the day #music #pride month #pride #Janelle Monáe #Janelle Monae #neosoul #soul #reggae #new music #pop music

[burlveneer-music]

Bantu Spaceship - s/t LP - an Afrofuturist odyssey helmed by Joshua Madalitso Chiundiza and featuring Thandi Ntuli

Bantu Spaceship will have listeners embark on a journey. A journey that feels like you are being taken through a portal into another time, Afrofuturism. The rhythms give you a sense of the past, while you also sense the future with all the synth sounds. This album will have you playing it on repeat while you are travelling from town to village and vice versa. The temptation to call this work a masterpiece will be permitted if not echoed by audience members onboard. This combination of artists is rare. Joshua Madalitso Chiundiza, the craftsman behind sound production, is no stranger to providing out-of-this-world audio scenes, as evidenced by his past work as a member of alternative hip-hop band The Monkey Nuts. His work on the Bantu Spaceship proves that he has a knack for venturing out of his comfort zone and traveling through time and space. The rhythm of the project is upbeat, cruising within the mid-tempo range for the most part. The synths and voices offer a cool breezy, ambient atmosphere, making the project ideal for mood setting. Chiundiza's production sounds like something that was picked out of the archives of the mid-eighties Jit and Chimurenga music and then carefully blended with elements of Disco and Electronic sounds. His mix makes for a beautiful excursion through a landscape of memories lived and futures imagined. Ulenni Okandlovu, serves as the voice, the Captain of the ship, guiding us by way of Ndebele chants, laid back melodies and poetic verses. His calm nature enhances the experience as it sits comfortably on the music, creating the illusion that making music like this is an easy feat; it isn't - uniqueness never is. Featured on the album are the voices of Thandi Ntuli (who also contributed piano keys); Kwela Sekele; musicianship of DJ Kid Fonque; Sungura guitarist Sam Mabukwa; and a Robson Banda sample.

#Bantu Spaceship #afrofuturism #zimbabwe #african music #2023 #nyami nyami

[theonlyadawong]

6 albums i've been listening to

tagged by: @devilbrakers

tagging: ummm anyone who wants to! :)

A Chorus Line The New Cast Recording (2006)

Favorite Song: One (Finale/Reprise) - This is the most perfect, most beautiful, and most tragic finale song in any musical ever. The only reason this song, as well as the album, is on this list and not the original cast recording is because this one just has better production and vocals.

Humanz by Gorillaz (2017)

Favorite Song: Saturn Barz - I remember listening to this song the moment it dropped. I was in the middle of my tech theatre class, and I was struck by how cool this sounded, and that's a feeling I have even now all these years later.

Mothership Connection by Parliament (1975)

Favorite Song: Unfunky U.F.O. - I LOVE this song. There are soooo many times where I think, "Oh no, I don't want to listen to this, it's not that great," and then I listen to it and it literally is that great. This is quite literally THE seminal afrofuturist album, it really stands the test of time.

Resident Evil 4 Remake Orignal Soundtrack (2023)

Favorite Song: Origin of Tragedy - The Saddler fight is my favorite in the entire game only because this song is playing. I think it's perfect for the final fight, and it sounds just wonderful with the new orchestrations. This is, and I mean this unironically, a song that makes me want to shake my ass.

Martyrs Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2008)

Favorite Song: My Neighborhood - This song plays as the organization is torturing Anna. It's an absolutely brutal and heartbreaking montage, and this song adds so much to the scenes.

Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical (1968)

Favorite Song: The Flesh Failures (Let the Sunshine In) - While there are numerous cast recordings of this musical with better singing and production, this is one of two cast recordings (the other being the 1979 film) that I believe fully capture the spirit of the show, as the lacking vocals truly serve to add grit and realness to the show, and it's infinitely better than hearing polished, standard Musical TheatreTM voices perform this rock musical. Anyway, I love this song because it's just wonderful. I don't care for the politics of the show because they don't go nearly deep enough for me (and it reeks of Hippie Culture, as it obviously would lol), but this song in particular has risen from this show to be covered my numerous groups, most notably (in my opinion) by The 5th Dimension.

#speakerphone! #tag games #:3 #this was fun. also this is really all over the place lol

[the-everqueen]

Hello! I’m interested in any book recs you have 💕

this is going to be some of my favorites, but if you want specific recs, let me know what things you've enjoyed/are looking for and i can tailor a shortlist (open offer):

fiction

mongrels, stephen graham jones - a coming of age story about an Indigenous teen descended from werewolves. jones is mostly known for the only good indians, which is also very good, but this book touched my monster-loving heart.

the sparrow, mary doria russel - a jesuit missionary is the only survivor of the first crew to travel to an alien planet. i read this book for the first time last year and i haven't stopped thinking about it. the sequel children of god made me even crazier (affectionate).

kindred, octavia butler - a black woman gets pulled back in time where she has to repeatedly save her white ancestor in antebellum maryland. time loops! the past as an actor on our present! what are you willing to do in order to survive! i think if you only read one octavia butler book, it should probably be either this one or dawn.

dead astronauts, jeff vandermeer - a trio from the future is traveling through loopholes in spacetime in an attempt to save the universe from latest-possible-stage capitalism. it's weird and experimental and more like a spoken word poem than a novel.

far sector, nk jemisin - this is a graphic novel about a black femme green lantern trying to prevent social collapse on another planet. gerard way wrote the preface. the art is excellent.

nonfiction

queer times, black futures, kara keeling - each chapter looks at an afrofuturist artist/art work to discuss black queer liberation. i read a lot of academic texts, so take this with a grain of salt, but i think keeling is very readable and if you're unfamiliar with the afrofuturist movement, this book provides a great starting point for artists to look into.

scenes of subjection: terror, slavery, and self-making in nineteenth century america, saidiya hartman - i'm not gonna lie to you, this book is dense. but hartman articulates how slavery in america shaped discourse around subjectivity and this discourse lives on. who gets to be recognized as a person, and under what conditions?

go ahead in the rain: notes to a tribe called quest, hanif abdurraqib - this is the Most Readable book in this section. it's part memoir, part music criticism, part archive. short but poetic. hanif is such a generous writer, and you feel his love for the subject. i'm so excited for his book on basketball that comes out next year and i have never seen a basketball game in my life.

poetry

postcolonial love poem, natalie diaz - this book aches like a bruise.

time is a mother, ocean vuong - like critical race theory but as poems. time is a flat circle and a spiral and a loop and a trap. (i actually like night sky with exit wounds better, but this one fits whatever theme i have going on here)

soft science, franny choi - robots are people, too. if you liked janelle monae's album dirty computer, you will like this book.

#ask games #ama #this was really hard and i did not let myself put stephen king on this list lmao #the theme was supposed to be like. what books would intro someone to this blog's vibe but actually. #in hindsight this list is I Like Time Fuckery

[yosoyloqueveo]

FLYING LOTUS | The zeitgeist changed when Flying Lotus fried jazz, soul, IDM and hip hop with his gamma gun.

This grandnephew of Alice Coltrane is a rapper, DJ and modern pioneer of Afrofuturist production. FlyLo started out interning at seminal hip hop label Stones Throw Records. In 2006 he released his debut album of instrumental hip-hop, 1983 and it wasn’t long before he was running his own groundbreaking label, Brainfeeder. By then, he’d figured out how to stitch up his vibrant patchwork of influences—everything from distorted game sounds and Japanese synthpop to Afro-Cuban rhythms and experimental jazz—then blast them to another universe.

He’s a prolific collaborator with another fellow jazz innovator, and RISING guest Thundercat. He’s scored his own anime series. He’s produced on some of Radiohead and Kendrick Lamar’s best work. He’s one of the greats. And he’s coming to RISING.

#flying lotus #melbourne #forum

[beatrice-otter]

Dirty Computer Book Now Out!

For those of you who LOVE Janelle Monaé’s lush, lyrical afrofuturist emotion picture Dirty Computer (aka that awesome pop/hiphop album they put out with a music video that covered every song on the album), good news!

They just came out with a book of stories set in that world, written by themself and others!

It’s called The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer (I will be putting links in the reblog so this will go out on the tag).

#dirty computer #janelle monae #afrofuturism #music #music video #hiphop #hip hop #rap #science fiction #books

[abrightandbrittlegrin]

i'm returning to bandcamp friday! today's picks are broadly folk, and mostly me returning to the "new" albums of people i picked up early pandemic

grace petrie - connectivity. angry, kind, political, gay, protest music. the losing side

jake blount - the new faith. an afrofuturist, post-climate apocalypse narrative. deeply connected to black and indigenous american folk traditions. the downward road

julian taylor - beyond the reservoir. i haven't listened to this one yet. i saw him live the other day and what he played was a salve. s.e.e.d.s.