soul

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 Loves Erykah Badu.

THEESatisfaction Announce Tour Dates.
15 February 2013

Not to rub it in or anything but one of our favourite live acts, THEESatisfaction, are touring the US in April and May with Shabazz Palaces. For those of us on another continent there’s solace in the transcendent futurist grooves of their reworked and reinstated tracks in tribute to the ‘Queen of Neo-Soul’ Erykah Badu.


As the next in line for the throne, Stasia Irons and Cat Harris-White have been producing a raft of modern beats, built on a long tradition of black empowerment and Afro-futurism in music, and last year released a brilliant, though comparatively underrated album debut awE naturalE on Seattle’s Sub Pop. Continuing on a series of ‘THEESatisfaction Loves…’ mixtapes the wonky psych-soul for Ms Badu follows on from last year’s October drop in praise of R&B singer Anita Baker. Listen and download here.**

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