[Shuffle 56] second x second

 
 

Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, Little Simz
Mother, Cleo Sol
KIWANUKA, Michael Kiwanuka
Una Rosa, Xenia Rubinos
Jaime (Reimagined), Brittany Howard

 
 

My fast ascension to SAULT obsession is well-documented here by now: its meeting of the moment with past and future at once. Seeking more, I turned up Simz, Sol and Kiwanuka, long-time recommendations, natch (The Algorithm always knows). Different facets of the same gem, unearthed in Africa, exported to London for shaping, shining and selling. Rhythm and rap, drumming and soul, heart and poesy. Their digital dependence supports age-old emotion, reshapes it and reframes it, words we know and can't; feelings, places, people we know and can't. Of a piece with this Rubinos, who twists genre between her fingertips, spins it into multicultured blankets that spark as much as they soothe. A first draft brought in African violin, but the Kiwanuka link opened up this retake of Jaime in new ways for me: the same vibe, same vibrations, same voices, now utterly American. The Divided States of A Mind (I Can't), uncomfortably mashed up against each other, forced to co-exist, no matter how disparate (diasporic) they may be. It all reeks of constant revision, the endlessness of creation, chord progression and poetry that unfolds, refracts, finds itself in itself in us; nose rankled by its beauty; stank face.

Heard this go’round: March 6, 2022

Old-movie montage and choral calls, urging us forward: strum, "little butterfy," strum "sunshine," strum "honey," strum. Yesterday's soundtrack for tomorrow. Heartbeat under pressing chords, urging us "to begin again" and yet to stay. Please stay. Verby-twinkle, synthetic reflections of words I may never know. High, high, too-high – another heartbeat, murmuring; atmospheric bells – so high and higher, higher still. Progression. Pause. Progression. Pause. Progress. Breakdown. Echo "in my bones." La-la, la-la, la-la, not-you, but-me. A world of imagination: whose voices are these? Tunneling thru light, faster and faster, which way we may never know. Soaring (haunting), manipulated (but how?), and the fall (oh the fall). You tell me "to believe in love," too close, but we may never be "close enough," even sitting side-by-side. Voiceover splice: "the idea of / your heart will guide you." What did you say? Nobody knows? No body knows another wholly, only little by little.

Hard To Say Goodbye 
Piano Joint (This Kind of Love) 
Si Llego/
Stay High – Childish Gambino Version 
FIN
Rollin Stone
You Ain't The Problem/
Presence – Little Dragon Remix
Ay Hombre
Tomorrow – BADBADNOTGOOD Remix
Promises
Another Human Being/
Gems – Interlude

 

shuffles

a way to listen

Christopher Shepard