June 23, 2020
Rosetta
Dua Saleh
Against GiantS

Dua Saleh named their new EP for one of their heroes, Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Tharpe -- a star in her own time, though often neglected in ours -- thrilled listeners in the early 20th century with her distorted guitar style, essentially inventing rock ‘n’ roll and influencing Chuck Berry, Keith Richards and pretty much every other guitar hero you can think of. 

Tharpe was a black woman who had romances with men and women, including the singer Marie Knight, who toured with her. After a family tragedy, Knight spiraled into isolating depression, and Tharp married a man. Approaching this record, Saleh told Vice back in April, “I was imagining what it would have been like if Rosetta and Marie had been together for life.”

ROSETTA isn’t a concept album, but it is -- like much of Saleh’s work -- a document of queer love. There are parallels to be drawn between Tharpe’s taboo-breaking, and Saleh’s growing up queer in a strict Muslim household. And while Saleh’s music might not sound much like Tharpe’s, they exude a similarly electrifying power. Saleh, like Tharpe, claims their rightful place in the world without a shadow of a second-guess. 

Saleh came to the U.S. from Sudan as a child; these days they’re based in Minneapolis, where, after establishing themself as an activist and a celebrated slam poet, they started singing their poems at open mics. 

Their 2019 debut EP Nūr-- especially the single “Sugar Mama,” which Saleh produced on their phone -- showcased a DIY sensibility and lyrical bite. A menacing metronome clicks behind slashes of strings and a sparse, heavy drum beat, putting the story right out front. “Her daddy always warns her/’bout my family’s behavior,” Saleh drones hypnotically, playfully scorching a sexually curious neighbor. “She looks me up and down/her pussy melting like a glacier.”

ROSETTA is sonically denser than Nūr, bringing to mind the gothy hardcore hip-hop/trip-hop of Maxinquaye-era Tricky, the sexy, loopy electro-pop of FKA Twigs, and a touch of the splintered sweetness of James Blake.

Saleh’s lyrics are, as ever, worth the price of admission. On the dark-wavy “umbrellar,” Saleh recalls an ex-girlfriend in graphic and awe-struck detail, the typically swaggering vocals taking on a singing-saw-like vibrato:

”I really gutted out her womb
A fickle fight an icky croon
Her breath condensing into a flume
She pulls her eyes into a tomb 
Fuck her whip she rides a broom
Casts a spell onto the moon”

It’s tempting to call Saleh an Artist For Our Time, and it's not untrue. As a Black person, a queer person, an immigrant, and a resident of Minneapolis, they exist at the intersection of several under-attack identities.

“In Sudan, there’s a lot of queer, trans and non-binary people who are closeted, so I try to put out as much content that’s like, the gay agenda, as possible,” they told Vice, but added that perhaps the best they can really offer people is some kind of escapism. But in a June 16 conversation with Paper Magazine, they put forth their personal dream for the future:

“I want to live in a world where people don’t have to think about the sociopolitical implications of their existence.”
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ROSETTA was released on June 12 through Against Giants. Purchase it here.

June 23, 2020
Cave vaults on the moon in new mexico
Tan Cologne
Labrador Records

In 1987, Taos, New Mexico-based composer Joanne Foreman was commissioned to write a soundscape to accompany a sculpture exhibition called “Artifacts from an Alien Civilization.” Foreman envisioned the sculptures --  which depicted ancient ruins found on the moon -- as evidence that the moon was a vacation destination for extraterrestrials.  From that speculative position, she wrote Cave Vaults on the Moon, a collection of “sonic texts” meant to express the fun these intergalactic visitors must have had playing, exploring, relaxing, building and staying in what Foreman called “Moon Castles.”

In February, psych-pop duo Tan Cologne - also from Taos - released its debut full length, Cave Vaults on the Moon in New Mexico. On this record, interdisciplinary artist Marissa Macias and multi-instrumentalist Lauren Green (formerly of the band Mirror Travel) pay their own dreamy tribute to Foreman’s rich imagination. 

Many of Foreman’s futuristic compositions are characterized by an arid Tangerine Dream chilliness and occasional Jetsons-worthy moments of space-age kitsch. Tan Cologne settles into softer, stonery-er atmospheric shoegaze. It’s music that floats into your ears like a soft breeze on an otherwise stale day, or like a ceiling fan lulling you to sleep on a hot afternoon. 

Green (playing guitar, slide guitar, bass, drums, synths and autoharp) and Macias (guitar, keys, synths, bells) recorded Cave Vaults on the Moon in New Mexico in two different places: one, a casita in northern New Mexico, and the other, a 250-year-old (or maybe older) adobe fortress in the historic district of Ranchos de Taos Plaza. It’s easy to imagine that these carefully choses spaces contribute to the intimacy of the record’s sound, as well as the gentle, cooling vibrational energy, which feels both earthy and ethereal. 

Tan Cologne’s vision is rooted in relics of planet earth -- by the band’s own description, thematic concerns include “examining fossilized terrains, monsoons, New Age dreams, alien visitations, resurrected communes, and the life cycle of a human ego on Earth.” It’s a journey focused on “the mysteries and oddities of New Mexico.” Foreman imagined her listeners as advanced beings from another galaxy, watching the earth from their “moon palaces.” Here at home, Tan Cologne gazes back. 
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Cave Vaults on the Moon in New Mexico was released in February through Labrador Records. Purchase it here.