Under the Stars is a quasi-weekly column that presents new music releases and a number of other adjacent items. Please enjoy!
PURSUIT GOOVES — “HOPE” (What Rules Recordings)
Veteran electronic music producer Pursuit Grooves makes ambient-type bump with sharp cutting edges that transforms machine-like interlocking into affected patterns of flow.
Mo:Delic Island, the new project from the Maryland-born, Toronto-based artist, will be released on June 11th by way of What Rules Recordings, is described by her as “the soundtrack to a magical place filled with fantastical creatures that radiate joy and hope all in their presence.”
You can get a taste of that boost-elevated vibe with lead single “Hope.”
LORAINE JAMES — “REFLECTION” (Hyperdub)
According to legend, Loraine James honed her craft growing up in Enfield, London, while peering thoughtfully at the skyline out her window, moved by her view and aware of how it shifted.
That shift is ever-present in her sound. She composes with a blend of jazz, austere beats, UK drill, and grime, chalking up the vibe to her mother’s taste and her home town’s multiculturalism.
Track “Let’s Go,” at first listen, is pure anxiety, a driven melange of propulsive synths, skittering rhythms, and warped vibrations. Then, the listener realizes, it’s just release. Drop the thinking, move the feet. It all makes sense. It hails from James’ album Reflection, out on June 4th.
NICK ANDRE FEAT. ZION I — “SENDERBENDER” VIDEO SOUNDTRACK (Shallow End)
We love to see Bay Area folks get their due. So we’re bringing an unreleased demo track to your attention by Nick Andre and Zion I that was used for Ryan Decenzo’s “SENDERBENDER” video, featured recently in SF-based Thrasher Magazine (RIP JAKE PHELPS.)
MOOR MOTHER — “ZAMI” (ANTI-Records)
Camae Ayewa a.k.a. Moor Mother put 2020’s shitstorm of a year into proper context with several releases, from her free jazz group Irreversible Entanglements to solo album Circuit City to her billy woods collaboration album BRASS. Ayewa’s sounds remind everybody to stay on guard, fight for our rights, and kick evil in the chicken McNuggets.
Now the poet, MC, polymath, and revolutionary has signed to ANTI- Records, following multiple releases with Don Giovanni. The announcement arrives with a video for a new song called “Zami.”
“Using the lenses of Black Quantum Futurism, the lyrics speak to Time and Space, injustice, racism, erasure of African identity,” Ayewa said in a statement. “‘Zami’ speaks of agency and something beyond freedom. It speaks of another future. It speaks about connections free from the stains of colonialism. It speaks about the expansive temporalities of Afro Diasporan people around the world.”
