“A canopic jar is an ancient artifact from Egypt. Singer Nai Palm is a long-time lover of Halloween inspired music, as she explains in the song’s meaning… ‘Canopic Jar’ is their first new music since the acclaimed release of the album “Mood Valiant” in June. A 12" vinyl release of the single package will be available on October 29th here. "Canopic Jar" is a haunting, cyclical track exploring the descent into the darker corners of the mind. With ‘Smiling With No Teeth’, Genesis Owusu has delivered a riveting album that underscores the power of self-knowledge, perspective and art – one that should be cranked loud.The twice Grammy-nominated band share a new single "Canopic Jar" including a hypnotizing 32 second introduction titled "Journey To The Crystal Tomb". It’s a bleak commentary on perseverance – and Genesis at his most imaginative. ‘Smiling’ consistently surprises: superficially, ‘A Song About Fishing’ is breezy folk balladry – but Genesis conjures a Nick Cave-esque parable, chronicling an exhausting quest to catch fish with no success, only hope. Thematically similar to both his own ‘Cardrive’ track ‘Drive Slow’ and Denzel Curry’s ‘CLOUT COBAIN’, it captures a rising star astute to exploitative music industry machinations.
Singing partly in a Pharrell-style falsetto, Genesis ponders the trade-offs of fame, and material trappings, on the low-key single ‘Gold Chains’. Songs like the assertive, stomping lead single, ‘Don’t Need You’ are conversational yet candid, Genesis delivering barbed observations on a toxic relationship: “ I always saw yo ass as a hindrance and you saw me as a target.” On the title-track, with wry spoken word, he admits to politely concealing his anxiety and depression when probed, realising that people seek assurances, not truths. Genesis approaches ‘Smiling’ as a catharsis – and, especially with his figurative writing, it can be occasionally unclear whom his missives are aimed at. In the opening noise banger ‘On The Move!’ Genesis’ chants of “ Black, Dogs on the move” are distorted and looped – the canine motif reoccurring in the propulsive ‘The Other Black Dog’, where Genesis copes with stress by finding escapes: “ All my friends are hurting but we dance it off, laugh it off.” As a Black man navigating white spaces, he dissects the interplay between racism and his self-image and mental health. Genesis reclaims the hound for his own narrative about demons. Genesis has also, he told NME, been called a ‘black dog’ as a racial slur. Pivotal to ‘Smiling’ is the phantom black dog often associated with British folklore – a creature later utilised as an allegory for depression by Winston Churchill. The Ghanaian-Australian Genesis recognises the anti-Blackness encoded in English language. ‘Smiling’ is steeped in funk, but it’s closer to no wave, ‘Dirty Mind’-era Prince, or N.E.R.D. READ MORE: Genesis Owusu: “I’d rather be a legend on my own little island than compete for a throne”.The album evolved out of live jam sessions led by Genesis. For ‘Smiling’, the Sydneysider helped Genesis assemble his Black Dog Band with guitarist Kirin J Callinan, bassist Michael DiFrancesco (aka Touch Sensitive), and World Champion’s Julian Sudek on drums (Klippel plays keys). In the early ’90s, when Australian music was about grunge, he formed the Eurodance combo Euphoria, before launching the deeper AK Soul (who actually recorded with the iconic house diva Jocelyn Brown).
HIATUS KAIYOTE RYM FREE
He’s worked with the Hiatus Kaiyote fold and Free Nationals’ Callum Connor – but on this album, he performs with a band formed around him by his OURNESS label co-founder, Andrew Klippel. Genesis has ventured far since he was a triple j Unearthed High finalist, dropping 2017’s jazz-rap ‘Cardrive’ EP. Above all, the Canberran poetically twins his identity as an “outcast” with a desire to be defiantly outré. ‘Smiling’ isn’t ‘Australian hip-hop’ as you know it: Genesis’ avant-funk pushes boundaries and amplifies individualism and free expression. He follows Kanye West and Solange Knowles in presenting an ambitious concept album with a cerebral theme and experimental sonics, defined by the auteur’s curation – rapping, singing and directing.
Genesis Owusu’s debut, ‘Smiling With No Teeth’, is Art with a capital ‘A’.
0 kommentar(er)
