Please enjoy mystery art, cat sculpture, windows on symbolic change.
Three music tracks: blues from Spartanburg, psych pop from Pesaro, hip-hop from Cairo.
On October 20th, I was emailed a link on a shady download site to a JPG image with the title “Mitote(crudo)” and the message “Ce la ho fatta!”. It came to a secondary email, one that usually only gets reminders about someone else’s bank account or come-ons from a far-away Subaru dealership.
I downloaded it with no precautions whatsoever. I do not know the artist, and neither Tineye nor Google has seen it before. This is it:
In 2016, art student Hanafusa Sakura got a lot of press for her graduation project “high-seven,” depicting her family cats in wood sculpture form, intended to be dapped in passing.
Since then, you will be pleased to know she has created more excellent cat-themed art works.
B-seven-ohs-M has a feature on Los Angeles artist Greg Ito’s new stuff.
New music: You Was Born to Die by Adia Victoria, feat. Kyshona, Margo Price, & Jason Isbell. (Bandcamp or Spotify or YouTube). Adia Victoria is a blues singer from Spartanburg, South Carolina. Click on this.
New music: Lonely Kingdom by KOKO. (Bandcamp or Spotify or YouTube). This is my favorite track from a gentle little 22-minute album by a small-time Italian psych-folk band. The lead vocalist, Costanza Delle Rose, has a voice, and an accent, that I find to be really really sexy.
The label is WWNBB, the We Were Never Being Boring Collective, the same fine folks who brought us (mainstay of my driving playlist) a/lpaca, as featured in Newsletter 18. I don’t know if you, dear reader, are a record collector, but behind that Bandcamp link is a limited edition of 25 test pressings, not yet sold out.
If you like this song but it is too gentle for you then you should try the single from this album, Polar Wander, which has a dance beat and a music video.
Old music: Ask the Birds in Cairo by Felukah feat. MC Bolbol (2019). (Bandcamp or Spotify or YouTube). Felukah is an Egyptian hip-hop and soul singer.
I don’t wanna be overselling here— how could I tell you with a straight face that all three tracks I’m sharing are truly essential? Obviously I couldn’t; I’d just have to imply it.
Please tell your cool friends where you are finding the best new music— they liked the sad-eyed singer, or the underground pop track with 12 YouTube views, or the Cairo-to-Harlem rap sensation? Link them here:
-Thomas