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cloveroctobers · 10 months

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MARI — summer prompts 🍋

A/N: I’m not gonna hold you…I was not fw her at the beginning of the series but she definitely grew on me! The little ✨ in me wanted me to write for Miss. Mari with a hint of enemies to lovers so here goes nothing. Please don’t let me flop, or I’ll completely remove myself from the fandom lmao jk.

PROMPTS from this list: 1.) setting up a slip and slide in their backyard + 2.) bonfire on the beach.

WARNINGS: probably language, guns, high schoolers being catty? + slow-burn?

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[July, 1995]

“Who the fuck invited her?” Mari glowers over her shoulder, after approaching her friends and teammates—well the teammates that she considered her friends anyways.

It’s Gen and Melissa who immediately follow Mari’s trail of eyesight to see the fresh meat on the team, Akilah and their ex-teammate, Cosima Chandoo stepping onto the patio.

Gen snickers, “she’s obviously Akilah’s plus one because we sure as hell didn’t invite that traitor.”

Melissa shrugged her shoulders, red cup in her hand as she took a sip and then swallowed, “wasn’t me. Word travels fast.”

Which was true, what was supposed to be a simple yellowjackets team only exclusive party, turned into maybe forty or more people in this open backyard.

“It was probably whacky misty,” Gen adds, lifting her chin towards the curly blonde who sat, awkwardly nodding her head along, as if she was in on the conversation between Lottie and Taissa.

Mari deeply exhaled as her eyes briefly close shut. The mere presence of Cosima being here, at her house on this humid day in July honestly frustrated her. She wasn’t allowed to be here.

“You could always kick her out,” Melissa suggested, “it is your house after all.”

“Which was actually supposed to be at yours.” Mari snapped at the blonde who raised her hands In defense.

Melissa frowned, “Hey, how was I supposed to know my aunt and perv uncle were coming up for a surprise pit stop?”

“Who the fuck makes a pit stop in New Jersey?” Gen comments.

“Clearly they do!”

“Where are they from again?”

“Pennsylvania.”

“…that makes sense. How sad.” Gen mockingly placed her hand on Melissa’s shoulder who snorted and playfully shrugged her hand away from her.

Mari was already stomping away from their conversation, face not only warm from the sun rays but also from the sight of Cosima who seemed to be all smiles with Laura Lee and Akilah.

“Oh hey, Mari!” Akilah waves as Mari pushes a smile onto her lips.

Her eyes flicker between the group of girls for a moment, between Laura Lee twirling her signature cross necklace, to Akilah’s chipper smile but still unease in her posture trying to figure Mari out, and finally Cosima’s comfortability in showing her face.

“Cosima was just telling us there’s a bonfire down at Huntingney Grounds,” Laura Lee tells the dark haired girl who kept her heated stare on the heart-shaped afro-picked girl, “I probably won’t be attending after this since I have a curfew but it’s a cool idea to end the day.”

No, the cool idea was having everyone here at her house enjoying the slip and slide she spent a good chunk of time putting together this morning by herself, while Gen and Melissa ate away the snacks they were supposed to set up.

Mari swallowed her irritation, “I know about the bonfire already.”

“Right because Danny was blabbing about it down at Wawa’s?” Cosima finally spoke, her usual hoarse tone made Mari’s eardrums itch.

Mari pushed her tongue into her cheek at this, “why would I know about Danny’s whereabouts?”

Cosima blinked, “Are you not dating?”

“We broke up. Weeks ago…and you would know that if you were still part of this team, which you’re not so.” Mari was smug as she said this.

Akilah tried to ease the tension, “well I invited Cosima since I didn’t want to show up alone. Is it just me or do you hate entering spaces by yourself? It’s just super awkward. I thought it would be okay?”

“Why? You’re her replacement.” Mari gritted, confused at Akilah’s thinking as the brown-skinned girl appeared almost like a gapping fish; while she looked at Cosima and Laura Lee for some sort of help.

Cosima smiled sweetly at Mari, hands clasped in front of her, “And you’re still a bitch.”

Laura Lee cleared her throat then, “Girls…let’s just continue enjoying this lovely day without the foul language please! Must this truly be a debate when we’re all on the same team?”

“But we’re not,” she interrupted with a point between herself and Cosima, “not anymore.” Mari was quick to continue jabbing at Cosima who simply sighed, “This is a team members event only and Cosima here quit on us a long time ago.”

“Yeah because I wanted to break three bones in my leg, which caused me to further suffer from a severed artery that also left me with a permanent limp. Do you hear yourself Maribela?”

“Don’t call me that!” Mari hissed while Cosima scoffed.

Cosima knew how much Mari hated going by her full government name, since “Mari” sounded so much better and it was short, simple, and cute. Sure it sounded different coming from Cosima’s lips, compared to her veteran father who commonly barked her name and gave—some might say, cruel orders around the house.

Cosima knew bits of this and still insisted doing so, just to get underneath her skin. Just like Mari knew quitting the team wasn’t something Cosima really wanted to do. Who really wanted to suffer a injury so bad in front of the entire school? Which allowed further permanent damage to be placed on not only your body but mentally? Yet here Mari was throwing old salt in Cosima’s wounds and she really wished she could help it.

Wished she didn’t have so much hate building in her heart but…majority of the time the words were flying out of her mouth before Mari can even process them.

No the two girls weren’t the stars of the team but the extracurricular activity was a bonding moment. They weren’t the best of friends before the team or even on the team but they were nowhere near as bad as they are now.

What changed you might ask?

Oh you know…A shared kiss in Cosima’s bedroom, had Mari’s mind all scrambled. (yes she was still very much with Danny at the time this transpired unfortunately!) Just to break apart right before Cosima’s mother came to the door, completely oblivious and informing Mari that her father was here to take her home. They never got the chance to talk about what happened that night because Mari decided to avoid Cosima like the plague in the hallways. She fought even harder on the soccer field and she only allowed herself to really feel crappy about it after seeing Cosima in shriveled up pain during the last two minutes of the game; when a thunderstorm rained havoc on them all.

It’s not like Mari didn’t feel like shit right after it happened in the first place! She couldn’t find the words to say as she collected her things, mustering up a half-assed wave as she quickly fled Cosima’s bedroom. She was completely confused because she’s only liked boys like Danny—and that wasn’t much to go off of. What was she supposed to do about her pretty teammate with a puff of tied back hair that floated behind her just from her simply standing? What was she supposed to do when she started to like the crooked smile that sat on the corner of her bow-shaped lips that tasted like figs? What was she supposed to do when she felt her intense stare from behind her in trigonometry?

What was Mari supposed to do about the girl that threw her for a loop? She remembers watching Cosima in pain and wanting to hold her hand but there were a lot of people crowding her and a lot of blood she couldn’t stomach. However that didn’t stop Mari from shoving some teammates out of her way so that she could keep her eyes on Cosima, hoping that her stare this time could provide some comfort.

She wasn’t sure if it ever did.

Then came the requests during English to make your own personalized cards for Cosima’s heavy healing journey and Mari knew she wouldn’t write something so basic. So lame. She had to do something better than anyone in their year, a huge card made from purple construction paper where she swirled and curled out Cosima’s name on the front of the page. While the inside she filled with lots of glitter and wrote her message in a pink gel pen.

That didn’t exactly feel like enough so with some of the money from Mari’s piggy bank, she went down to the crafts store to make a small goody bag. She grabbed some things she had a feeling Cosima would like, like shiny stickers—she originally wanted to get her a TLC poster but it wasn’t in the budget, bubbalicious gum, fun-dip, a piña colada lip smacker, a neon translucent phone enamel pin, a bouncy eye-ball she could throw at her wall, a feather pen, and a mini beanie baby that she could add to her collection on her bookshelves.

Mari paid attention to Cosima’s bedroom and that night they shared, so she hoped her goody bag made her feel somewhat better. Like maybe she could make up for running away with trying to ease Cosima’s painful moments.

“Okay…then stop talking shit about me and the team and we’ll all have a good time, got it?” Cosima stated, arms crossed as she stared down at Mari who trailed her wide-set eyes from Cosima’s glowing copper muscular arms to meet her stare.

Mari dipped her head, finding herself, as corny as it sounds, suddenly lost in the hues of Cosima’s eyes—which was better than staring at her lips of course! It seemed as if she was tongue tied as Cosima gave a tight-smile before glancing back at Akilah who was still shocked this was happening.

The slightly taller girl with a head full of hair, walked by Mari who allowed it for a couple of seconds, before she also turned to Cosima’s retreating form, “yeah, I’ll fall back…as soon as you leave my house so I won’t have to see your face anymore, traitor.”

“Mari!” Laura Lee exclaimed but Mari held up a hand to silence the blonde.

Cosima stood with her back to Mari and let out a humorless laugh. It was the same cycle over and over between the two and frankly, she was getting tired of this.

“Hey everybody! There’s a bonfire down at Huntingney Grounds if you’re interested.” Cosima called out to everyone, gaining their attention over some pop track.

The sun was just beginning to burn a deep orange, fading below the blue skies, which means the air would start to cool soon. It took about thirty minutes to get out to the park and longer by foot or moped, like the purple one Cosima commonly drove.

This new information got everyone talking which made Cosima shrug at Mari over her shoulder. Soon she brushed by Mari and whispered, “I’ll see myself out now. Later.”

Mari wasn’t sure if she wanted to mess Cosima up or kiss her in that moment. Maybe both.

Mari can see from the corner of her eye, some of her classmates and even the yellowjackets began to collect their things!

“Whoa! The best time to do a slip and slide is when the night falls. You guys don’t have to leave yet.” Mari spoke to a classmate who simply shrugged and carried on.

Shauna answered, “The mosquitoes also get bad when the sunsets and I’m allergic so, I pick the bonfire one hundred percent but…this was fun so thanks.”

Mark scoffed at the brunette before her eyes settled on someone else, “Jackie, not you too.”

“Jeff’s gonna be there and I heard Danny too.” The large eyed leader winks at Mari who can’t help but to scrunch up her nose.

“I don’t care about Danny!”

Lottie mutters as she makes her way by, “Why because he’s banging Stephanie now?”

Nat snickers, joint pressed in between her lips as she simply shrugs at the glare Mari’s sending her way, smoothing her damp fried bleach blonde hair back as she also makes her exit.

“Okay you know what, all of you can get out then. See if I care!”

“I’ll stay and help you clean up.” Misty offered, making Mari’s icy stare turn to the glasses wearing teen.

“Ohh no, especially you. Get the hell outta here!” Mari pointed at the front as Misty flinched and began to speed walk away.

“You’ve got a nice way of treating your teammates Mari, really! Keep up the superb job and you may just be our new captain soon.” Vanessa’s voice dripped with sarcasm as she made her way by with a laughing Taissa.

Who also sent double thumbs at Mari.

Which earned both girls a nice middle finger.

She couldn’t believe everyone just decided to bail on her right now! All thanks to Cosima.

That bitch.

“Uh Mari?! Your dad’s back.” Melissa informed, now standing by the patio, hand scooping up another cheese doodle.

Mari’s eyes increased in size, bigger than Jackie’s as she began waving her hands around at the remaining guest. “Everybody out! Run!”

“Run? Can’t we just powerwalk our escape?” Taissa asked, arms crossed behind her head.

Gen immediately shook her head, tossing the red cup to the side, “you haven’t met Mari’s dad, he’s crazy! You better run.”

The way she was whispering was almost as if Mari wasn’t in ear-shot. The panic on her face was evident but Gen was definitely not the person to go to as a source of comfort as she fled the scene.

As the older man approached the screen door, Melissa let out a scream as she took off running around the side of the house, orange puff long forgotten in the grass. Mari felt her heartbeat in her ears, her breathing halting, the sun still warm on her skin. Her dark eyes settled on her dad, yanking the door to the side, shotgun in one hand as he stepped out onto the patio, surveying his sorta trashed backyard.

“Holy shit! Is he gonna shoot us?” Vanessa’s eyes were now wide as well.

Mari swallows the lump in her throat as she almost waits for her dad’s eyes to find her’s.

Taissa shoved Mari forward to lead the way as she mumbles, “We’re not sticking around to find out. Go.”

She stumbles a bit, being pulled from her trance as she focuses on getting her legs to operate correctly, stepping into a light jog with the two girls that followed after her, eyes occasionally glancing at the wild man at the door.

“Maribela! I see you! Get your ass over here, now.”

With tears burning her eyes, Mari dares a glance at the man—almost stopping but it’s Vanessa’s turn to grip her wrist and drag her along.

“Maribela!” The man continues to yell, gun aiming and ready to shoot.

And so he does, directly at the neighbors trashcan, by the girls ankles; setting off the neighbor dogs to bark at the noise.

“We can run now.” Taissa yelled, now leading the way as the three girls ran at full speed to the front of the ranch styled home and to her pale gray Nissan stanza.

Vanessa shouts, “Open it!”

“I’m trying!” Taissa shrills, finally getting her key into the door before she flings the door open to mash on some buttons, “It’s open!”

Which is enough for Mari and Vanessa to pull on the doors and hop in. It’s seconds before Taissa starts the car and pulling away from the curb and far from Mari’s household.

She looks back, seeing her father standing in the middle of the street as she retreats and she knows that this is only temporary.

“So are we gonna talk about what just happened or?” Vanessa pries as she peeks at Taissa and then stares hard at Mari, who just hopes she doesn’t start bawling in the backseat.

Taissa can see Mari has her attention on the moving scenery of the city and the way the palm of her hand is pressing into her mouth while the other is clenched is enough for the situation be dropped. Although it seems like Vanessa isn’t ready to let it go, saying this exactly to the driving long haired curly teen, the look Taissa sends the redhead is abundant for Vanessa to take the hint as it dawns on her that this is Mari’s normal.

The drive to the park is tense and the radio, which Vanessa has taken complete control over, only seems to be talking, which the girls were not! instead of playing music. She begins to search Taissa’s car for CD’s and at least some cassette tapes but comes up short much to her disappointment.

The girls at the front of the car have a bit of a bicker at that but eventually quit down to either listen to radio hosts or static. The static ended up being more soothing to Mari than the voices, believe it or not.

By the time the girls pull up to the park, the sky bled navy and the fireflies flickered yellow. The air smelled like fresh grass and burning wood as a slight breeze picks up now.

Mari’s holding the sleeves of her golden mustard yellowjackets hoodie, almost peering around to make sure her father didn’t trail after them in his pickup truck. Vanessa lightly nudged her with her shoulder, making Mari take a sharp inhale.

“Hey…let’s go.” Vanessa gently suggests as they circled around the car to where Taissa stands.

Taissa is eyeing Mari and Mari almost wants to snap something at her but the look in Taissa’s brown eyes is not judgment. Vanessa leaves the two behind as she almost prays there’s more booze at the bonfire after what they just witnessed.

Taissa falls into step with Mari, heading up the incline on the sidewalk to down the hills where the bonfire sat.

“…thanks for getting me out of there.” Mari says quietly, “and…I’m sorry he shot at us.”

Taissa nodded at the younger girl, “Don’t mention it.”

And Mari waits for Taissa to fill the air with questions such as, “Is he always like that?” “How can you live with someone like that?” “Has he ever actually hurt you?”

But they don’t come as Taissa only offers a small smile in understanding. She knows that if Mari wanted to speak further on it, she would. It was clear she was holding onto a lot and maybe she wasn’t the person she needed to talk to about this and that was okay too.

Taissa’s just glad no one died tonight.

Mari finds a empty spot on a log, pressing her elbows into her bare thighs as she looks around the park. Everyone is mostly spread out, a few faces she recognizes from school and her slip and slide and others that probably went to the community college here. She sees Jackie sneaking off with Jeff hand in hand, Gen seems to be dancing away with some guy she’ll ask her about later, Melissa is laid out on the floor in front of a log with her trucker hat covering her face, Shauna is seated on that log behind her almost glaring at the fire—probably pissed Jackie just ditched her, and lastly Mari sees Danny with his hand resting on Stephanie’s hip by a tree as she’s all cuddled up to him.

It makes Mari want to vomit at the sight. She thought she was in love with Danny but honestly he was just there to pass the time outside of school and soccer. There wasn’t much of connection there in the first place, he was just this goofy kid that was good at Math and had beautiful teeth.

There was no spark when they kissed but it felt nice to have him hold her and just to say that she had a boyfriend. That was about it to be honest.

She turns to her left then, spotting Cosima staring right at her. Mari rolls her eyes then, turning her attention back to the fire, assuming she probably looked like Shauna right about now.

A wave of something floral but citrusy hints her nostrils as someone sits down next to her.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Mari frowns as Cosima plops down beside her.

Cosima doesn’t answer right away but when she does, it doesn’t ease Mari’s irritation, “just sitting and enjoying the fire, what does it look like?”

“Yeah okay but you can go back and do that over there,” Mari huffs, sneaking glances at Cosima who was finally able to hold her stare.

“Nah, I think I like this spot much better.”

“Because you’re pissing me off?”

“A little bit,” Cosima smirks while Mari can’t help but to breath out a laugh of her own, “it’s kinda fun.”

“I’m sure it is for you,” Mari responds, “Ruining my party just to come to this…snooze fest instead.”

Cosima tilts her head to the side eyeing Mari’s semi-dry hair that waved at the ends due to the sprinklers, “your party was dying down anyway and Akilah and I saw your dad earlier before we got to your place.”

“What? Did he say something to you two?” Mari rushed out, suddenly worried.

Cosima shook her head, “No he didn’t see us. I knew he would be heading back home soon.”

Mari listened to what Cosima was saying to her just then. It sounded like she actually looked out for her in a sense and Mari wasn’t sure how she should feel about that. So she broke eye contact to stare back at the swirling flames.

The teen felt something placed on her kneecap while she dazed off into the flames. Blinking she glanced down to see a cube of something in a wrapper. Mari was hit with the sweet smell of strawberries as she brought it up to her eye sight before she looked over at Cosima who winked.

“Bubbalicious?”

“Uh huh.”

“Watermelon is obviously better.” Mari comments but that doesn’t stop her from unraveling the pink gum to toss into her mouth.

Cosima snorts, “you would say that.”

The small laughter lines appear by Mari’s lips then as she chewed and Cosima can’t help but to focus on them. How they curve into their own miniature smiley faces by the sides of her lips and her little mole on the left. She almost wants to place her fingertips on them, liking that there was a smile on Mari’s face for once tonight. But she doesn’t. She doesn’t want to be further rejected.

“Well you try and enjoy your evening, Mari.” Cosima pushes herself up from the log.

Standing, Cosima briefly stares at the fire for a moment but also wants to enjoy the company of Mari for a few seconds more—no matter how much they clashed.

Just as Cosima turns to begin limping away, Mari lightly reaches a hand out to press her clammy fingertips against Cosima’s warm ones. The touch is short but enough for Mari to feel Cosima begin to squeeze her fingertips back.

Cosima stared down at Mari, awaiting for what she says next.

“I’ll try my best,” Mari whispers, dark eyes almost shining as they look up at Cosima, “…You have a better one.”

“We both know I will.” Cosima teases while Mari rolls her eyes and let’s her hand rest back in her lap.

And with that it’s Mari’s turn to watch her old teammate walk away.

Once seated, Mari can’t help but to keep her eyes on Cosima, ember flames illuminating her skin as she chats away with a smiling Akilah, who notices Mari’s stare. When Cosima turns to catch Mari’s eyes again, she can’t help but to ponder if they could be something better…together.

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Continue along with my summer anthology prompts here.

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boonesfarmsangria · 12 days

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Basement alchemy: Yannis & The Yaw sees Foals' Yannis Philippakis and Afrobeat legend Tony Allen forge a treasure with 'Walk Through Fire'

The lead track from YANNIS PHILIPPAKIS’ posthumous collaboration with Afrobeat drumming legend TONY ALLEN captures the electrifying spark that ignited during their global musical meeting, weaving a tapestry of sound that reflects the cultural touchstones of Lagos, Paris, and London. Read our latest Dork Mixtape cover feature now.

Words: Martyn Young.

Photos: Kit Monteith, Rishi Salujah.

“It’s about serendipity and coming together with someone.” There’s always something amazing when you get to meet your heroes, but for Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis, the opportunity to not only meet but work with legendary Afrobeat pioneering drummer Tony Allen was a truly special experience. Tragically, Tony passed away during the pandemic, leaving the work that they started in flux, but seven years after they first met, Yannis has now put together a beautiful EP documenting their time and the music they made together as a special project under the name Yannis And The Yaw. ‘Lagos Paris London’ is a reflection of a moment in time and two generations meeting and creating a little bit of magic.

With Foals riding high on the wild success of their fourth album ‘What Went Down’, a call offering an intriguing opportunity came following two years of hard touring. “I got a call when we were deep in a Foals tour. We were touring ‘What Went Down’ so it was quite a few years ago now. I got a call from a mutual friend who said, do you want to go and write with Tony Allen in Paris?” says Yannis.

The mention of Tony Allen’s name immediately conjured excitement as he remembered the pivotal role Tony and his work as drummer for Fela Kuti, as well as his long and winding career, played in the genesis and evolution of Foals. “A lot of our formative musical years were spent listening to Fela Kuti,” he explains. “Especially this one compilation of Tony Allen’s that I think is just called ‘The Best Of’. It’s a quadruple vinyl. We used to hammer it when we were writing ‘Antidotes’ and ‘Total Life Forever’. I was a huge fan.”

He was immediately hooked on the unique skill of his drumming. “Another song that we loved that he played on was ‘La Ritournelle’ by Sebastian Tellier; that was a song we all obsessed over. His drumming is a huge part of why that song is great.”

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While the opportunity sounded exciting, a “no brainer”, as Yannis explains it, the reality of actually making it work became more of an issue. “I got home, and I hadn’t been home for a couple of months, and I collapsed into a puddle the moment the keys were thrown on the table. I was like, fuck, I don’t know if I’ve got the energy to get up and get to Paris the next day,” says Yannis as he describes his exhaustion after a punishing Foals tour. “I almost put it off, but my friend at the time encouraged me and said, look, you’ve got to go there for two days. It might be the experience of a lifetime, then you can come home and rest.”

For the experience of a lifetime, Yannis recounts the details in a refreshingly simple and down-to-earth style. “So, I trotted off with my guitar to the Eurostar and I got there in the morning,” he begins. “It was a basement studio. Very French and very 70s. Full of cigarette smoke and bad carpet and mirrors in weird places. It was basically Tony’s home, in a way. His drums were permanently set up in the live room.”

For the music icon that is Tony Allen, he had seen and experienced everything there is to experience and had worked with a who’s who of musical legends, “What was funny about the first encounter was he wasn’t particularly phased or that excited that I was there. He was just in his own vibe,” laughs Yannis. “I don’t think he knew of my work. It was set up, and he was in a place where he was very open to collaborating with people. He was doing some stuff with Jeff Mills. Tony, in general, collaborated a lot. He approached it like a jazz drummer. The producers and the other musicians that were around Tony knew me; they helped me set up and were very welcoming.”

Was there a sense of trepidation, though, and having to prove yourself and prove your musical chops? “It wasn’t that Tony wasn’t welcoming, but he was waiting to see what it was going to be like. Who’s this little punk?” he laughs.

Almost instantly, though, the musical alchemy bubbled up, and from their first jam together came the project’s first track with the heavy groove of ‘Walk Through Fire’. “It’s a simple song,” he explains. “It largely revolves around this one riff. We played it round a couple of times, and some of these other French guys in the studio who knew Tony played along and were either helping out on bass or percussion. We kinda had it there. The moment that that had happened we were getting on like a house on fire after that. The room changed.”

As they played more and more, Yannis discovered at close quarters what he loved about Tony’s artistry and even discovered new things. “I was surprised at how quietly he played,” he says with deep reverence. “Coming from proper big arena rock shows on this Foals tour and playing songs like ‘What Went Down’ and ‘Snakeoil’ was a total pivot into this much more deft style of playing. Just being in a room with him and hearing him in the moment playing his drums that I had become so familiar with, the texture and the rhythm of the way he played and that being on something that I was writing live on the spot and that we were inhabiting the same moment of creativity together in a room was just electrifying.”

‘Walk Through Fire’ was the spark that ignited the whole project. “It was the first thing. It’s immediate in the same way that it was immediate in the room on that day,” enthuses Yannis. “The lyrics are pretty resonant with the time we’re living in. Tony encouraged this in me. He wanted the lyrics to be engaged with the social fabric. A lot of Tony’s music, and the lineage of Fela Kuti and Afrobeat, is often very political with protest songs. In discussing with Tony about the lyrics, he wanted it to mine the social discord. It resonates today. It’s got this fresh energy. It feels like a more garagey or bluesy song. It’s quite rough and freeing and fun. It was a good entry point to the project but also makes sense chronologically.”

The jamming session in Paris was intended to lead to work beginning on a full album, but events got in the way firstly with scheduling issues and then Covid before Tony’s sad passing, which ultimately gave Yannis the impetus to turn those special moments into something real and tangible. “Covid really scuppered us because he was based in Paris. It was impossible for so long,” he explains. “As is the way with collaborations, once you’ve captured the lighting in the bottle, sometimes you don’t complete it when you should. You know that it’s there, so you get slightly complacent about it. I had a lot of stuff with Foals and he was busy as well doing The Good, The Bad and The Queen. He was really busy, and between us we couldn’t get together. Sadly and tragically, he passed away during Covid. It strangely was a massive motivation to try to finish it. Largely out of guilt that we hadn’t done it while he was alive and realising that it had been such a special experience in my life creatively, but just as a person, it was such a unique moment for us to have not completed it and played shows together. Out of bittersweet guilt, I really wanted to finish it. We needed to put them out to do it justice.”

The EP is a beautiful tribute to the enduring legacy of Tony Allen and the creative spirit he represents. “His music will live on forever,” says Yannis passionately. “The drums will play on. He had such an incredible and unique style of playing. He was the originator. He was the source. There’s an untappable well that will continue to inspire people for generations.”

The record is also an example of his dexterity as a musician and willingness to still try new things. “This release is an interesting perspective on Tony’s writing,” says Yannis. “It’s definitely a different project than Tony’s worked on before. It’s the heaviest stuff he was involved in. For me, it’s obviously the most inspired by jazz and Afrobeat. For people coming to the EP, it’s an interesting prism that we were both put in and thrust together to write this.”

Even more remarkable is that it almost never happened. “Had I not gone to Paris that day and further along, had we not kept it up and had we not finished it, through these chance meetings and happenings, you can end up with something that’s precious and is permanent,” he continues. “When so much of life is impermanent, that’s a really important lesson that I learned. I feel protective over the record. It’s a treasure and a document of two people who came together. He was in his seventies when I met him, and I was in my twenties. There’s something amazing about two people from different cultures and backgrounds and generations being thrust together unknowingly without knowing each other and through music very quickly bonding and forming and creating something that will last.”

This collaborative project comes at a time when Foals are able to take a pause and reflect on a triumphant couple of years following their euphoric 2022 album ‘Life Is Yours’ which cemented them firmly at the top of the UK band pantheon after almost two decades of innovation. “We’ve been smashing it for so many years; it’s been such a constant focus of our lives,” says Yannis, explaining the band’s desire to take stock. “It has been incredible to devote yourself to something so absorbing, but I think every now and then you just have to come up for air and remind yourself what life looks like above the parapet. For self-preservation and the preservation of the band, it’s important to occasionally stop and assess what exactly we want to do next rather than just automatically make another record without consideration. This time, we want to think about what we’re going to do next, and I think that’s natural after having put out quite a few records; it’s important for us to decide what we want to do.”

In the meantime, Yannis And The Yaw offers the opportunity to have some fun and do something a little different. Certainly not a solo project, but just a different kind of creative expression. “I’ve left it open-ended,” he says excitedly. “The idea behind the Yaw part is that it could be a rotating collaborative project. The title, ‘Lagos Paris London’, is the cultural touchstones for the EP, and it’s a musical postcard from these locations. If there was to be another project with the Yaw again, it would be three different locations and a different cultural mix. It’s not meant to be a solo expression. This EP is an archive of time recording with Tony and French musicians Vincent Taeger and Vincent Tuarelle, who were really important and produced it. I would imagine they might be part of the Yaw. It’s important to make the distinction. If I were to do a solo record, it would sound a lot different. This is led by Tony and the group of his musicians in France. If I was to do another one, it would sound quite different. There are no plans for that right now. I want to leave it open-ended and let this EP have its time in the sun, and let’s see what happens later on.”

With the EP arriving at the end of the summer, there’s a tantalising opportunity for perhaps some gigs as Yannis looks to continue to honour the legacy of one of his all-time heroes. “I think we will,” he smiles when asked if he’s planning to bring these songs to life on stage. “Not an extensive tour, but a couple of shows to give the record a good release and a good send-off and honour Tony.”

#yannis philippakis #yannis and the yaw #y&ty #interview #actual reading

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readyforevolution · 10 months

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Wishing Wole Soyinka, a Great African 89th Birthday!

Wole Soyinka was born on July 13, 1934, in Abeokuta, southwest Nigeria. A prolific author whose works also include volumes of poetry, and numerous novels, Soyinka is among the greatest at his craft today. After winning the Nobel Prize for Literature he was highly sought after for his essays and lectures.

A dedicated and talented man, Wole was also of fortune birth, as a member of the Ransome-Kuti family and related to the Odemo, or King, of Isara-Remo Samuel Akinsanya, a founding father of Nigeria. He was a political activist himself and his social commentary would appear in his works, plays, novels and even movies.

As an advocate for democracy he was at odds with a string of authoritarian Nigerian governments. He was imprisoned for nearly two years for his part in trying to avert the Nigerian civil war of 1967. He was exiled twice and even sentenced to death in absentia.

Wole Soyinka never stopped writing, not in prison or after he won his Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, the First African Nobel laureate. He was finally allowed back home to Nigeria in 1998 and continues to write. His latest work, The Putin Files, a volume of the series "Interventions", was released just last month.

#blacktumblr #black history #wole soyinka

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mathclasswarfare · 2 months

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thank you @moonwaif for tagging me in this game!

"Song Poem Challenge! Put your entire song collection on shuffle, then write down the first line from each of the first ten songs that pop up to create a poem. You must then dedicate the poem to the blorbo or OTP that it most reminds you of! Then tag or send asks to three others people that you think might enjoy the challenge!" [My addition: if a song has no lyrics, insert a line break]

I got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 6

fragile, like a baby in your arms

standing in the dock at Southhampton

Hey, hey, you there

Desolation angels in a junkyard of lies

let's have a black celebration

when I walk in the shadow of the day

I'll dedicate this one to Ardyn.

Tagging @happy-orc @mementomoryo and @bladesandstars

Song list after the cut

Modest Mouse, Breakthrough

Depeche Mode, A Question of Lust

Beatles, Ballad of John & Yoko

Zion80, Reiah (instrumental)

Peter Gabriel, Sledgehammer

Mary Halvorson, Moonlight in Vermont (instrumental)

Fela Kuti, Witchcraft (there are technically some vocals but I did not feel like trying to discern a line of lyrics out of them)

Radiators from Space, Enemies

Depeche Mode, Black Celebration (this is how you know the suffle function is truly random. I did not expect two songs from this album!)

Carsick Cars, She Will Wait

#meme game #tumblr meme #music

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afrobeatsindacity · 1 year

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INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY: THE WOMEN IN NIGERIAN MUSIC

Nigerian music’s history is beautifully storied, and like every great story has had heroes pop up at different times, each handing the baton of Nigerian culture from one generation to the next and laying a small piece of the success it enjoys today. When magnifying glasses are placed on Nigeria's music with the intention of highlighting its most significant contributors, it is very common for our women to get left out. The reasons for this oversight—the relative scarcity of female acts in comparison to male counterparts—is no excuse. If anything, the women who have made their fair share of efforts to shape our music deserve a bigger spotlight, for they had to overcome the more prominent barriers to get there, barriers placed by a patriarchal society and increase the further back you go in our history. Barriers that have not been completely cleared even today.

With today's women breaking and setting records across gender lines, the International Women's Day of 2023 presents a poignant opportunity to document the strides our women make in modern music, while highlighting in retrospect the talented, underreported women who came before.

While Fuji music and its lesser-known affiliate, Apala, were dominating the local scene in the '70s and bringing to their creators like Wasiu Ayinde Marshall, Ayinde Barrister and Ayinde Kollington national fame, another Yoruba-Islamic genre, Waka, was traditionally performed by female artists. It was drawn from Alasatu, a Yoruba genre with strong Islamic and Arabic influences, and Alhaja Batile Alake fashioned Waka out of it, allowing the genre to escape the confines of religion and tribe. Another prominent female singer, Alhaja Salawa Abeni, built on this, bringing Waka to national platforms and beyond.

The Ladiju sisters (or twins) are a pair of female artists whose contributions to Nigerian music remain timeless. Their debut album, Iya Mi Jowo, was released in 1969, and they went on to release 5 more albums that were ahead of their time in content and sound, as they drew from a wide pool of influences that included foreign sounds like Jazz and Rock as well as the indigenous like Waka and Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat.

Across the Niger, the women of South Eastern Nigeria were making similarly impressive strides of their own. Nelly Uchendu is most famous for her Love Nwantiti album of 1976, especially the eponymous lead single. She was not the only Igbo songstress to be renowned for her singing prowess. The “Elegant Stallion”, Onyeka Onwenu excelled even beyond writing and performing music, as she took up roles as an actress, worked as a broadcaster and even delved into politics as part of a storied career, putting to bed question marks placed over a woman’s capability. Christy Essien-Igbokwe chose to put her inspiring messages of woman empowerment and Nigerian advocacy into song, and these female artists performing at the top level helped imprint in the next generation that chauvinistic gender roles were a thing of the past.

Modern Nigerian (Pop) music, or Afrobeats, has featured a larger share of women at the highest echelons at every stage, and it must be acknowledged that they have all but caught up in terms of individual star power.

Weird MC was one of a few artists to first nationalise American hip-hop spirit. Her 1996 album, Simply Weird, and its standout track, "Allen Avenue", helped dress up rap music in the Nigerian clothing it decks today. 2006's "Ijoya" took her popularity a lot further, and it remains a timeless classic to this day. Asa's musical inclination was similarly unconventional, but it lay at the other end of the spectrum, as her R&B/Soul-powered eponymous debut album announced the entry of a new star. With it she strengthened her image abroad, ensuring that she enjoys today an audience beyond the shores of Nigeria. Thankfully her talent came with longevity, and her most recent album, released in 2022, still serenades Nigerians like her first effort did 15 years before.

Subsequent acts would hone in on conventional Nigerian pop, which they coloured with their honeyed vocals. Omawunmi made her debut with 2009's Wonder Woman, fresh off becoming a runner-up on Nigerian Idol where she had launched a prototype of her career. With singles like "In The Music", "Bottom Belle" and "If You Ask Me", her star appeal was never in doubt, and with her most recent album Love Deep High Life only two years old, her diminished popularity should not be taken for hibernation. Waje, another singer blessed with incredible vocals, emerged around the same time, first making a guest appearance on Psquare's "Do Me" in 2008 before songs like "So Inspired" and "For A Minute" served as a proper entry into the scene. Just like Omawunmi, she remains an active member of Nigerian music's ranks, as her latest album, "The Misfit", debuted last year.

At the turn of the decade, Tiwa Savage moved in from the UK, pitching her tent with Don Jazzy's Mavins Music after she had spent the last few years providing back up vocals to icons like George Michael and Mary J. Blige. Her adaptation did not take long, as her superb debut album, Once Upon A Time,—with songs like "Kele Kele Love", "Eminado" and "Without My Heart"—showcased equally her supple songwriting and her silky, yet powerful delivery. She is one of a few acts in Nigerian music, across gender lines, who have ruled the last decade in near-constant influence, and with her ability to tie effortlessly into new and trendy music (see: "Loaded" with Asake and " Who's your guy" remix with Spyro), there is still a lot more to come from the songstress.

Seyi Shay is another act that shares a common history of finding her feet in music in the United Kingdom. She moved to Nigeria at about the same time, and her first steps here—"Irawo" and its Vector-assisted remix; the Loving Your Way EP; and her debut album, Seyi Or Shay—were very well received by the Nigerian audience. Her most recent release, 2021's Big Girl, came with positive acclaim, especially its titular lead single. Yemi Alade's "Johnny" brought with it an impact that every artist desires for their breakout single, and to this day its video continues to accumulate astronomical numbers as more and more people from around the world discover the self-styled Mama Africa. To strengthen her claim to this title, she has released music in a variety of African languages, allowing her to tap into diverse cultures and strengthen her continental profile.

Simi, the woman with the voice that soothes sometimes and strikes other times, also made her debut in the half decade between 2010 and 2014, a time period that supplied female acts in buckets, some of whom still enjoy a continued presence at Nigeria's top flight. She debuted in 2014 with "Tiff", doubling down on this entrance with "Jamb Question" in 2015 as she checked 'playful storytelling' as part of her skillset. With each album since then she has gone on to provide an inspiration to any female acts entering the industry. Sisters Niniola and Teni share little more than a surname, but their varied musical paths have individually brought them to the top flight of Nigerian music's roster. Niniola was one of Nigeria's first adopters of House music, though some articles on the subject will disrespectfully leave her out altogether. Her accolades speak for her though, and she earned a Grammy songwriting certificate via 2017's Maradona, which Beyoncé sampled for her Lion King: The Gift album. Her most recent EP, Lagos to Jozi, builds on her vibrancy and innovation, weaving Nigerian slang into South African beats for a dance-ready project.

Her sister, Teni, is the more exuberant artist off-stage, and her music is a more straightforward affair involving Nigerian Pop rhythms and love-strung writing. Clearly a vigorous romantic, 2018's "Case" outlined the lengths she was willing to go to for love, while 2019's "Power Rangers" imagined herself as a superhero coming to her lover's rescue. She also has an inspiring side, as revealed by "Uyo Meyo", and a balance of these two has driven her to recognition in Nigerian music.

The biggest strides taken for Nigerian women in music, especially on the international stage, would come on the wings of one of its newest entrants. 27 year old Tems has achieved in four short years what would be an impressive resumé for an artist's entire career—a Grammy win, an Oscar nomination and collaborations with some of the biggest artists in the world. All this is made that much more impressive by the fact that she is still yet to release a debut album, and when it arrives later this year it is expected to push her career to unprecedented heights.

Behind Tems are a band of other female acts. Young, talented and eager to break down what is left of Nigerian music's gender tilt and level rhe playing field. Ayra Starr's exploits in Mavin records have produced an EP and an album, and with them she's made a name for females and teenagers in Nigerian music. While this is only a summary of the very many women that have graced Nigerian music for years, it is hoped that with other young acts like Fave, Liya, Guchi and Bloody Civilian making their way up the ladder, next years International Women's Day will feature an even lengthier list than this.

This article was written by Afrobeats City Contributor Ezema Patrick - @ezemapatrick (Twitter)

Afrobeats City doesn’t own the right to the images - image source: Instagram

#afrobeats #afrobeats city #afrobeats london #african music #uk afrobeats #nigeria #nigerian music #iwd #iwd23 #music #tiwa savage #international women's month #article #music article

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lunapaper · 8 months

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Album Review: 'The Age of Pleasure' - Janelle Monaé

Janelle Monaé is apparently on that champagne shit.

The self-proclaimed ‘free-ass motherfucker’ leaves behind the futurist dystopia to enter her The Age of Pleasure on her fourth album.

Unapologetically Black, queer and proud in a world maniacally determined to do away with all three at the moment, Monaé is the life of the party, bringing the braggadocio of previous tracks like 2018’s ‘Django Jane’ poolside, though with a citrus zest that doesn’t quite fizz in the way it should.

Aquatically inclined tracks like ‘Float’ (ft. Sean Kuti and Egypt 80) and ‘Water Slide’ offer simmering sensuality in the form of brassy horns and hypnotic Afrobeats, with Monaé deliciously boasting on the latter: ‘If I could fuck me right here, right now/I would do that.’

The theme of self-love runs deep throughout The Age of Pleasure, Monaé admiring herself with the same vigour as she does everyone else. ‘A bitch look good/A bitch look haute/A bitch look pretty/A bitch look handsome,’ she purrs on ‘Haute,’ feeling young, Black and proud as she gets her Bowie on, strutting her way through a sea of drowsy island beats. ‘I'm lookin' at a thousand versions of myself/And we're all fine as fuck,’ she later marvels on ‘Phenomenal,’ while recent single ‘Lipstick Lover,’ her demands are firm: Whisper in her ear, give a little tongue, a ‘sticky hickey in a place I won't forget.’ Later, she only has eyes for 2, the singer revelling in all its wine-sipping, neck-biting glory as sensual 70s soul meets tropical temptation with a slight sci-fi edge.

Songs pass in a sultry, slumberous haze. But the longer the party goes on, the more the energy in the room starts to wane. Even for a 32 minute album, said songs begin to feel repetitive and a little tiresome. It’s also shocking that Monaé, who’s given us such biting commentary in the past on everything from race to politics to feminism, would write material so broad, so one-dimensional, and occasionally cringy.

‘A Dry Red’ opens with a truly corn-worthy line: ‘Hey baby, let me plant my seed.’ On ‘the Rush,’ she resorts to sappy, teenage-level mooning (‘I look into your eyes and I get that rush/Maybe ‘cos tonight, you’re gonna be my crush’), while ’Haute’ is either basic bitch parody or blatant Lizzo plagiarism (‘Rollin' around with my besties/Skin looking good 'cause we stress free’). ‘Water Slide’ is just a bunch of swimming metaphors.

There’s nothing wrong with Monaé wanting to let loose and have a little fun. But she’s managed to find a happy balance between pop and purpose in the past. Take, for instance, ‘Dance Apocalyptic’ and its cartoonish frenzy taking the piss out of Cold War conformity, the irresistible funk of ‘Q.U.E.E.N.’ and its joyous proclamations of queer pride, and its neon-lit predecessor, ‘Make Me Feel.’

The Age of Pleasure is heavy on vibe but light on ideas. For an album that’s all about sex (baby), queer identity and hedonistic bliss, it’s not all that adventurous, more simpering than simmering at times as Monaé cycles through the same empty boasting and tired cliches. Padding out the album with so-called interludes also feels like cheating, especially since most of them are merely extensions of other tracks.

There are some compelling moments – the sultry Bossa Nova groove of ‘Phenomenal,’ ‘Lipstick Lover’s elastic basslines; the Latin-tinged guitars on ‘The Rush’ and its sublime harmonies; the decadent burst of French by the icon herself Grace Jones on ‘Ooh La La.’ But compared to the highly ambitious world-building of The ArchAndroid and other releases, the album feels like quite a letdown, too self-indulgent to be a true party record with each track sounding more indistinct than the last.

It feels like sacrilege to call a Janelle Monaé album boring, but... The Age of Pleasure is, I’m sad to say, rather boring.

- Bianca B.

#music #janelle monae #the age of pleasure #new #reviews #Bianca B

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gothprentiss · 1 year

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Writer asks: 5, 10, 17, 21, 27

5. Do you plan? Or do you “wing it”?

……… :(. wing it…….

or like okay. blah blah i’m disorganized i sort of write out from nodes rather than working linearly through anything, but what, for Me, works as planning is setting out a preimposed thematic structure. so for my ongoing bering & wells fic (which i have “not” planned), i have section titles based on james clerk maxwell’s a treatise on electricity and magnetism, which means that i’ve effectively got an outline in the form of the titles i’ve pulled from that.

10. How many unfinished works are in your drafts?

previously answered but i did just find my like, big document of fic ideas. so it’s like, there’s ~9 wips, most of which won’t see the light of day, plus an exorcism/demonology wip that i don’t think i’ll ever finish because writing horror hard :( and it would be super long, and then there’s a like. evil long document which i am afraid to open.

17. What piece of writing are you most proud of?

blah blah yuck annoying answer i’m not really proud of any of them— i’m distinctly UNproud of all the multichapter fics i’ve never finished, to the point that i’ve orphaned them from my old ao3 lol. HOWEVER i’m trying for self improvement SO, back in 2016 i wrote this star wars fic as a birthday gift for a friend (funny story. i’d started writing this as a gift for them, then been like YUCK this is taking so much research i don’t want to do, wrote a criminal minds fic for them, then finished this one over winter break. so they got two fics out of me and also started me on this terrible writing criminal minds fanfiction journey) and especially considering how much reading about star wars i very unhappily and half-assedly did, i think this is probably my best worldbuilding and probably my best, like, narrative idea. also the dream sequence from the opening section of this demily fic— i fondly remember multiple lines from it. too uneven to say the whole thing but i think the tone sometimes hits really where i wanted, and i was pleased when that happened.

21. Do you listen to music as you write?

answered previously but i did also remember— in addition to the coil unreleased hellraiser themes and my big fela kuti playlist, i have a playlist of almost every nick cave & warren ellis movie soundtrack, and that is BANGER writing music.

27. Are there certain types of writing you won’t do? (style, pov, genre, tropes, etc)

answered previously but here, too, i wax on: my fondness for like, parody and experimentation means i’d probably try out many things once, at least for a bit, and many more that i’d be willing to consider if someone was committed enough to pay me. you’d never catch me posting 2nd person pov reader x character fic uncompensated, for example. also you’ll probably never see me post a finished multi-chapter fic but that’s more of a personal failing lol

#thanks for playing!! eternal in your generosity 💜#explosionshark #i am not sure what this is based on. but i have this impression that you are a great planner of writing #which makes 5 feel like a read lol

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gerogerigaogaigar · 1 year

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Anita Baker - Rapture

Polish it until the mix sparkles. Polish out the imperfections. Polish out the personality. Polish out the funk. Polish it until every living thing inside it dies. This is how we do it in the 80s. This album is a fantastic sample pack for vaporwave artists.

Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele

I love Wu-Tang solo albums. Like it's totally a ghostface solo album it just happens to feature RZA, GZA, Inspecta Deck, Method Man, Cappadona, and U-God. RZA crafts most of the beats here as usual and manages to give Ghost some of the widest variety of sounds on a Wu-Tang album ever. And Ghost steps to the challenge by really stepping up his game lyrically. Not only is his flow more complex than ever, but he also takes on the subject of crime and inner city life with more nuance and focus on community than his previous record.

Fela Kuti & Africa 70 - Expensive Shit

To understand Fela Kuti you have to understand his relationship with the Nigerian government. Fela Kuti would write an album criticizing the government, then they would raid his home, destroy his music equipment, and attempt to arrest or kill whoever they could. Then Fela Kuti would set up somewhere else and record an album mocking the Nigerian government for failing to kill him. Expensive Shit commemorates the time that the Nigerian government tried to frame him for marijuana possession but he ate the joint they planted on him so they took him in to force him to shit the joint out so that they could arrest him for having marijuana poop. I'm not kidding, this happened. All this is to provide context so that when you hear the energetic upbeat rhythms of the title track of this album, that is the sound of a man mocking the government for spending time and money to inspect his shit.

Blondie - s/t

This is one of the original punk rock bands. If you don't like that then fuck off back to your music history class while the big girls thirst for Debbie Harry. Blondie really had a way of hiding their punk rock underneath a facade of every other genre they felt like. Doo wop, 60s garage rock, surf, and some good old rock n roll. The other thing about this album is that Debbie Harry is horny, for men and women alike. The music may sound upbeat but she's gonna kick your teeth in and that's just the foreplay.

#500 album gauntlet #anita baker #ghostface killah #fela kuti #blondie

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musicblogwales · 9 months

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youtube

Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Futurephobic (Official Video)

Los Angeles psych-punk quartet Frankie and the Witch Fingers have shared new track “Futurephobic” alongside an official video. The song is taken from their seventh studio album Data Doom, due September 1 via The Reverberation Appreciation Society / Greenway Records. FLOOD Magazine gave the video an early debut, describing it as “in line with the album title’s vintage dystopian sci-fi connotations, swapping weed-smoke riffs for frigid new wave pulses and staccato vocal deliveries.”

“The main riff was an idea we came up with during the writing process for our album Monsters Eating People Eating Monsters… but we kept it in our back pockets, as it wasn’t quite fitting in with the theme of that album,” the band explains. “When we started writing Data Doom, it reemerged very organically and everyone latched onto the idea surprisingly fast and ran with it. We expanded on the main riff and came up with the other parts and overall arrangement while writing with our new lineup in our studio in LA. The whole process went surprisingly smoothly. We added backing vocals and overdubs while on tour last year in Europe, doing all the passes to complete the song from various apart-hotels, attics in France and Amsterdam.”

Though they’re currently in the midst of a massive trek across Europe, the band recently announced an extensive run of headline U.S. tour dates for this fall, which include performances at such esteemed venues as Warsaw in Brooklyn and The Troubadour in Los Angeles. See below for the full list of currently-announced dates.

Through six progressively expansive albums, innumerable live dates on an ever-expanding list of continents, and performances with the likes of Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, Cheap Trick, ZZ Top and more (to say nothing of their impressive headline dates), Frankie and the Witch Fingers have earned their throngs of global fans with their ecstatically wild live shows and layered, visionary recordings. With Data Doom, the band is poised to welcome even more uninitiated into the fold – it’s their most eclectic work yet, while remaining undeniably cohesive, and they’re supporting it with the biggest headline shows they’ve ever played.

Over the past decade Frankie and the Witch Fingers have operated as an outright force of nature, offering up a revelatory form of psych-rock that hits on both a primal and ecstatically mind-bending level. In the making of their new album Data Doom, the Los Angeles-based four-piece forged a sublimely galvanizing sound informed by their love of Afrobeat and proto-punk—a potent vessel for their frenetic meditations on technological change run rampant, encroaching fascism, and corrosive systems of power. Animated by the explosive energy they’ve brought to the stage in sharing bills with such eclectic acts as Ty Segall and ZZ Top, the result is a major leap forward for one of the most adventurous and forward-thinking bands working today.

Rooted in the cerebral yet viscerally commanding songwriting of co-founders Dylan Sizemore (vocals, guitar) and Josh Menashe (lead guitar, synth), Data Doom marks the first Frankie and the Witch Fingers album created with bassist Nikki “Pickle” Smith (formerly of Death Valley Girls) and drummer Nick Aguilar (previously a touring drummer for punk legend Mike Watt). In crafting their most rhythmically complex work to date, the band drew heavily from each new member’s distinct sensibilities: Smith tapped into her extensive background in West African drumming (an art form she first discovered thanks to her music-instructor parents), while Aguilar leaned into formative influences like longtime Fela Kuti drummer Tony Allen. Self-produced by the DIY-minded band and recorded direct to tape by Menashe, Data Doom ultimately took shape through countless sessions in their Southeast L.A. rehearsal space, with Frankie and the Witch Fingers allowing themselves unlimited time to explore their most magnificently strange impulses.

Once again showcasing the expansive and fantastically eccentric musicality of past efforts like 2020’s Monsters Eating People Eating Monsters..., Data Doom encompasses nine high-wattage songs constructed with both dizzying intricacy and unfettered imagination. On “Mild Davis,” for instance, the band shares a gloriously spaced-out track inspired by a piece from Miles Davis’s early-’70s electric period, cycling through a vast whirlwind of rhythms and textures and wildly spellbinding guitar parts. “We worked on that for two weeks straight, puzzle-piecing together different parts into one very weird and stream-of-consciousness song that’s mostly in a 7/4 time signature,” Menashe recalls. Meanwhile, Sizemore’s lyrics shift between savagely despairing the state of the world and resolutely dreaming of a brighter future. “I wrote the lyrics to ‘Mild Davis' in a moment of feeling pessimistic about what technology is doing to our society, especially as AI is creeping to the forefront more and more,” says Sizemore. “But then the bridge comes from a more optimistic perspective, where it’s questioning whether we could reboot the whole system and start all over.”

After opening on the epic majesty of “Empire,” Data Doom launches into the first song the band’s new lineup wrote together: “Burn Me Down,” an irresistibly jittery track that perfectly encapsulates the album’s transcendent collision of blistering riffs and polyrhythmic grooves. On “Electricide,” Frankie and the Witch Fingers unleash the LP’s most unabashedly punk offering, a bombastic rallying cry built on Aguilar’s breakneck drumming. One of several songs featuring Menashe on sax, “Syster System” slips into a hypnotically fluid tempo as Frankie and the Witch Fingers muse on the possibilities of partnership culture (a concept introduced by futurist Riane Eisler in her seminal book The Chalice and the Blade). “Riane Eisler talks about how our society has a very masculine energy that manifests as the need to exert power, which she refers to as dominator culture,” Sizemore explains. “The alternative to that is partnership culture, which has a feminine energy that’s more symbiotic with nature. The idea behind ‘Syster System’ is that if we could bring that energy into technology, it could help make everything more harmonious.” And on “Political Cannibalism,” Data Doom closes out with a dance-ready anti-anthem stacked with so many loopy details, such as a warped and otherworldly guitar part Menashe spontaneously composed in an attic in France.

To create the cover art for Data Doom (a co-release from Greenway Records and the Reverberation Appreciation Society), Frankie and the Witch Fingers reached out to Italian illustrator Carlo Schievano and UK-based graphic designer Jordan Warren, who then joined forces in assembling an elaborate mixed-media piece complete with its own language system and accompanying decoder. “It was really fascinating to see two different artistic voices working together to make something so unique, with all these hidden elements for people to figure out,” says Smith. Not only an echo of the album’s endlessly immersive quality, Data Doom’s visual component reflects the band’s devotion to unbridled collaboration in all aspects of the creative process. “There was no pressure and no real time constraint for this record, and because of that the creativity flowed in a very free way that probably wouldn’t have happened if we’d been on the clock in a studio,” says Sizemore. “It showed us that the more we take the time to communicate and share our ideas with each other, the more it feeds our creative energy and helps us to make something we’re all really excited about.”

#Frankie and the Witch Fingers #Futurephobic #BigHassleZack #Youtube

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