Afrofuturism

Janelle Monáe announces new album and more.

Janelle Monae.
16 April 2013

Self-identified android and master of her own myth, Janelle Monáe, will finally be releasing a new record, The Electric Lady, following 2010’s critically acclaimed The ArchAndroid. Monáe’s first single ‘Q.U.E.E.N.’ will feature Erykah Badu and be released on April 22.

Fellow Afrofuturist and neo-soul acolytes weaned on the likes of Parliament and Sun Ra, hip hop soul duo THEESatisfaction recently paid their respects to the ‘Queen of Neo-Soul’ with a mix tape in tribute to Badu, while Monáe’s stomping funk number ‘Tightrope’ did its part for its progressive women predecessors with a subtle nod  to surrealist film maker Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon, see if you can spot it here. **

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THEESatisfaction’s ‘awE naturalE’ reviewed.

19 March 2012

Interesting to note that the peculiar fusion of righteous soul and contorted hip hop beats that is Seattle-based duo THEESatisfaction cite two people by the surname of Butler as major influences. There’s the music of one Ishmael Butler (aka Palaceer Lazaro) of friends, collaborators and Sub Pop label mates Shabazz Palaces and then the ideas of science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler. The latter namesake was responsible for some award-winning novels concerning racial and sexual ambiguity, as well as social class and language before her sudden death in 2006.

THEEsatisfaction - Awe Naturale album cover
THEEsatisfaction – Awe Naturale album cover

DIY in the real sense, the duo’s bandcamp page features music self-produced and uploaded since starting work together in 2007. Rife with references to black history and signifiers of that emerging literary movement known as Afrofuturism, with which both Butler’s are associated, releases like Astronomical Warfare, Why We Celebrate Colonialism and Sista Ya Been on My Mind (as Neon Warwick) express concerns with the African diaspora and an aesthetic throwback to the African-American activism of the 60s US.

Continue reading THEESatisfaction’s ‘awE naturalE’ reviewed.

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