Philadelphia Musician, Poet And Visual Artist Moor Mother AKA Camae Ayewa Signs To ANTI- Records The Philadelphia-based Moor Mother – AKA Camae Ayewa – has signed to ANTI- Records. Moor Mother is a holographic figment of an Afrotopian dream, all at once goddess and warrior, mystic and cyborg, griot and future time traveler, etching noisy pieces of reverie into our consciousness for decades now. Today she has released the piercing new track “Zami”; produced by her frequent collaborator Madam Data, listen to the track and watch its new video HERE. “ ‘No more master's clock / we travel spaceways’; "Zami" speaks to a number of different themes,” Ayewa explains. “Using the lenses of Black Quantum Futurism, the lyrics speak to Time and Space, injustice, racism, erasure of African identity. “Zami” speaks of agency and something beyond freedom. It speaks of another future. It speaks about connections free from the stains of colonialism. It speaks about the expansive temporalities of Afro Diasporan people around the world.”

Nashville-based songwriter Madi Diaz announces her new album, History Of A Feeling, out August 27th on ANTI, and today presents a new single/video, “Woman In My Heart.” History Of A Feeling undeniably marks Diaz’s status as a first-rate songwriter, a craft she’s spent years refining. Across the album, Diaz cycles through the full spectrum of emotions as she comes to terms with the dissolution of a meaningful relationship. She plays the line between the personal and the general with dexterity: in Diaz’s hands, quiet moments of self-pity are transformed into grand meditations on heartbreak, and unwieldy knots of big existential feelings are smoothed out with a sense of clear-eyed precision.

Simply calling Curtis Harding a “soul man” feels reductive. Harding’s voice conveys pain, pleasure, longing, tenderness, sadness and strength—a full gamut of emotions. Today his voice takes on an optimistic lilt in his new single “Hopeful”. Directed by photojournalist Lynsey Weatherspoon, the song’s accompanying black and white video was filmed in the West End of Atlanta and features footage of a John Lewis mural and recent Black Lives Matter protests.  “Working on the visuals for “Hopeful” was very cathartic because it gave me the chance to revisit and reflect on the activities from 2020,” Weatherspoon said. “Curtis' song really brings home what we're all feeling and how we can progress to the hope we have for our future. His energy is unmatched and he immersed himself into the process, which helped us create a powerful storyline for the video. Being able to really bring home the meaning of the song within several areas of Atlanta really made this project a success. I know “Hopeful” will be able to bring a sense of place in a world that we desire to love and peace to be spread abound.” “I wrote [“Hopeful”] some time ago but in theory it goes far beyond a time and place,” Harding explained.  “I’ve always tried to carry it (Hope) wherever I am. Darkness finds us all, hope allows us the fortitude to seek out the light. “

Xenia Rubinos, the New York City artist who’s been revered for her bewildering voice and maze-like knack for melody, shares a new single and video ‘Cógelo Suave’ today. Animated by Stephen Smith, the video features a psychedelic conglomeration of coquis in a joyful and inquisitive visualization of the song. ‘It’s a gibberish spaceship ride, high speed chase, birds and stars whirring around your head at the end of a cartoon fight,’ Rubinos says about the track. Birthed from a bass line she would often play during sound check, the song responds to the question that so many lately find impossible to answer: “how are you?’’. After looping through an electric, chaos-containing melody, the song resolves on the repeated phrase ‘just work it out’, making it all seem possible. The track was recorded in the height of quarantine (Spring 2020), when the world was slipping into a deep kind of chaos, Xenia’s mom had an experience with covid, and it was generally hard to tell which way was up, the process of making the track provided a cloak of resilience. ‘The more I think about it, the more I realize that the world was totally burning down around us while we were producing this track and in the song I guess I’m saying ‘I’m fine. THIS IS FINE,’ says Xenia.

For Nandi Rose, writing a song is an act of transformation. As Half Waif, Rose pieces together the patchworks of our darkest and most vulnerable moments with a golden thread, crafting a majestic evocation of the human experience that permeates with a graceful strength. On new album Mythopoetics, the Hudson Valley-based artist breaks the familial patterns handed down to her, transforming this source of pain into something bearable, beautiful and celebratory. It is an essential reminder that we have the power to shape the stories we tell and the myths we make of our lives.  Half Waif’s previous albums The Caretaker (2020), Lavender (2018) and Probable Depths (2016), garnered acclaim for their compelling journeys through solitude, desire and the search for independence, blanketed under a spectacle of deeply-layered synth-pop. Her fifth full-length sees her stretch her creative muscles, as Rose pushes through the barriers of self-scrutiny and transports us into a world of mythic proportions. Charting territories of addiction, memory and loss, Mythopoetics is animated by the traces of what’s been left behind: the ghost of orange blossoms, the tail of a meteor across the sky, the taste of loneliness in a crust of bread. It is a kind of modern-day storybook where memory is spun into song and the self is explored and acknowledged with tender, nourishing care. To bring together the world of Mythopoetics, Rose once again collaborated with multi-instrumentalist, film composer and producer Zubin Hensler. The pair came together for a recording residency at Pulp Arts in Gainesville, Florida, with the intention of creating stripped-back recordings of old songs, solely focusing on Rose and her piano. However, the playground of the studio soon transformed the project into a texturally diverse and kaleidoscopic sonic universe.

No matter how progressive we think we are, we’ve all got blind spots & we should do our best to try to educate ourselves. It’s okay to not know/understand how other people are feeling, but it’s NOT okay to not make the effort to learn.