– THE MILITARY COUP –

Lafawndah has always been one of those artists who’s vehemently, obstinately, obsessively hard to put into a box. The Egyptian-Iranian vocalist and producer combines deeper-than-hell bass-lines with militant percussion, Arabesque scales and panic-inducing electronica to create a sound that she, herself, once felt could only be summed up with the words “pelvic”, “boom” and “bone”. Ahem.

Storm Chaser finds her in typically belligerent form; dismissive of any easy-ways-out and straining at every sinew to wrestle the emotional torrent of the track to her bidding.

Awesomely evocative, it combines the nascent power of its subject with the sort of imminent, growing threat that it evokes.

In her own words, “Storm Chaser is the personification of a particular longing: to be moved by a force more powerful than yourself. The kind of larger-than-life force that plummets with abandon towards chaos – not to celebrate disaster, but to rebuild the present.”

I’m not sure I totally understand all of that but I get what she means.

The track comes from the album, Ancestor Boy, which was released last week.

More From This Week’s Mix:

KOFFEE | “RAGAMUFFIN”
MDOU MOCTAR | “TUMASTIN”
LAURENCE PIKE | “DRUM CHANT”
JUST A GLANCE | “MEMORIES II REMEMBER”

You can find all of the tracks reviewed above in the 45 Revolutions per Minute playlist below or click to access the 45 RPM Playlist on Spotify itself.

If you like what you hear (or even if you don’t), please engage in dialogue with me @45rpm_Reviews on Twitter. And, if you’d like to receive updates weekly, please subscribe to the email list to get these recommendations sent to your inbox weekly.

– SV –