Weekly Music Roundup: Nakhane, Tanya Tagaq, and India.Arie

This week, a big question from India.Arie, a 60s flashback, and a rapidly rising queer icon from South Africa.

India.Arie Releases New Single, Album To Come

As a songwriter, the multiple Grammy winner India.Arie has often had more on her mind than purely musical concerns. Equality, empowerment, and spirituality have all been subjects of her past records. Her new single, “What If,” begins with a memorable couplet: “what if Martin didn’t stand up/what if Rosa didn’t sit down,” and goes on to suggest that we have be worthy to build on their work; “it’s up to us” is the refrain in the song’s chorus. And the album is called Worthy, a title that you can take as a question, or a statement, or a challenge. It features some lush production, full of distant choral effects and midtempo grooves, but occasionally turns acoustic and intimate as well. Worthy comes out on February 15. 

And India.Arie will perform live in our studio on January 23 at 2pm.

 A Psychedelic 60s Flashback From Lucille Furs

The band called Lucille Furs is a quintet that originally started just a couple of years ago in Chicago, and is now partially based in LA. I’m telling you this because if you just listen to the song, “Paint Euphrosyne Blue,” you would probably assume the band is from London. And from 1968. The song comes from their forthcoming album Another Land, a record squarely in the psychedelic pop style of the late Beatles, the Monkees, and the Zombies.  Locked in vocal harmonies? Check. Cheery, catchy melody? Check. Obscure Greek mythology reference? Check. (Euphrosyne is the Greek goddess of merriment.) They even have a mellotron player. But give them credit – this sort of music is hard to do right. Just ask the dozens of would-be Beatles who fell by the wayside in the late 60s/early 70s.  Lucille Furs do it right, and “Paint Euphrosyne Blue” has a sticky melody that gets into your head. 

Nakhane’s New Song Is Moving, And It Moves

The South African singer Nakhane is rapidly gaining attention, for both his music and his unusual backstory: wrenching himself away from a conservative Christian upbringing to accept, then embrace his sexuality. Now a leading voice among queer musicians, he has already attracted the attention of ANOHNI, whose own career has been marked by transformation since she burst on the scene as Antony from Antony & The Johnsons. She provides soulful vocal support to Nahkane on his new single, “New Brighton,” and it says a lot about Nakhane’s voice that he is in no way overshadowed by his more famous collaborator. Nakhane’s singing sometimes reminds me of Bowie – until he reaches up into his startling falsetto register. The song itself rides along on a fun disco-rock beat, and is yet another indication that Nakhane’s album, You Will Not Die, just may catapult him to a lot of year’s best lists in 2019. That album comes out on February 22. 

A Polar Soundscape From Tanya Tagaq

The Polaris-Prize-winning singer, activist, composer, and author Tanya Tagaq is a force of nature, as anyone who’s ever seen her perform live can attest. Using traditional Inuit throat singing as well as a variety of vocal techniques from pop to avant-garde, she has released a series of albums that address the systemic destruction of her indigenous culture in northernmost Canada, as well as the chaotic destruction of our environment. Her music, sometimes referred to in a far too facile way as “polar punk,” is a hard-hitting blend of electronic, industrial, traditional, and avant-garde classical sounds. Now, she’s contributed a 5-track score to an exhibit called “Polar Worlds,” which is running at London’s National Maritime Museum. The full score will be released in March, but the first single, “Snowblind,” has just come out and offers a glimpse at the more ambient side of Tagaq’s work. Wordless vocals float over a gently pulsing rhythm and spare piano, and about midway through, Tagaq incorporates some of the breathy techniques of Inuit throat singing.  By the end, her voice has drifted up into the stratosphere. 

The full soundtrack to the exhibit is called Toothsayer, and it’ll be out on March 1.

Snarky Puppy Announces New Album

Grammy-winning band Snarky Puppy has never been easy to pin down.  Two of their three Grammy awards came in the Best Contemporary Instrumental Album category, and the other was in the Best R&B Performance category for a song with Lalah Hathaway. With their clever mix of jazz, funk, rock, and world music, they’ve reached a wide audience while remaining a moving target. Now they’re preparing to release a new album called Immigrance, which promises to be a somewhat moodier, darker-hued affair. The idea, according to founder/bassist Michael League, is that everything is always moving and that we are all in a constant state of immigration. “Obviously the album’s title is not without political undertones,” he observes drily. The first single is “Xavi,” which features a bass line that does in fact seem to be in perpetual motion, as it supports a Mission Impossible-style flute line and then a jazz-funk horn section. Along the way various solos break out, and nine minutes later it all comes to a hand-clapping conclusion. 

Immigrance comes out on March 15. 

After Twelve Years, New Music From The Cinematic Orchestra

The Cinematic Orchestra, led by songwriter and composer Jason Swinscoe, is well-named. They’ve done actual cinematic music – like their jazzy electroacoustic score to the silent film Man With A Movie Camera, which we presented live here in New York back in 2009. And some of the songs, especially from the band’s last album, Ma Fleur (2007), were used in various movie trailers and ads. Of course, that was all a long time ago. Now, with their first new album in 12 years coming in March, the Cinematic Orchestra has released a single, called “A Caged Bird / Imitations Of Life,” which has a kind of nu-jazz/electronica vibe, melancholy synthesizers, and a guest turn by the important British rapper and singer Roots Manuva, who raps the verses and sings the chorus. “Stranger things are claiming us,” he chants at a couple of points; meanwhile the song develops its own strange but affecting beauty. 

Cinematic Orchestra’s new album, To Believe, comes out on March 15.