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AD93

Alpha Maid

Is This A Queue

    Beginning from a sense of frustration at the predictable and boring narratives and systems that we live under, and the feeling that such rules were the rules of the universe, Alpha Maid formed an interest in particle physics.

    “We only know 4% of the universe, there is hope in that and the unknown 96%. I found excitement and wonder in that. The theories I was reading about relied more on the conditions of the present moment, and it made the idea of living in the moment feel more accessible. It started to be possible to see present time from all these different angles, and to have infinite more options to choose where to be next.”

    Written across many years and different places, the LP documents a journey and the people Alpha Maid met while moving around, collating moments of the present. Her guitar remains a constant amongst an array of sonic influences throughout: from dub which honours her Jamaican heritage and the Windrush Generation, to the twinges of an emo love song in 'On Smoke'.

    Is this a queue revels in the magic of that which we cannot see and coherently understand, and the narratives that have been shrunk down to fit. Remembering, continuing, forgetting, paying attention, building, navigating, contributing, time.

    Alpha Maid (aka Leisha Thomas) is a guitarist, vocalist, and producer from South London. Her debut EP 'Spy' (2019) was released by the collective/label CURL. She continues to collaborate in various forms with fellow members such as Coby Sey and Mica Levi. Alpha Maid's debut vinyl release 'CHUCKLE' EP (2021) was released on the C.A.N.V.A.S. collective/label, and garnered significant critical attention. In spring 2023 Alpha Maid teamed up with Mica Levi to self-release their joint 'EP spresso'.


    TRACK LISTING

    1. 6-9
    2. 2 Numbers (ft. Leo Hermitt)
    3. Guarded
    4. CC
    5. GOAT Rosetta
    6. WHY WE HAVE TO MOVE (ft. Valentina Magaletti)
    7. On Smoke
    8. Strut In Straddle
    9. Palimpsest (ft. Coby Sey, Ben Vince)

    "Process Of Elimination" explores sickness as a teacher for anti-capitalist modes of being; a rewilding of the self. The product of an attempt to be indestructible, this sickness has an unknown diagnosis. The only route to determine the indeterminable is via a process of elimination. Eliminate the noise so it may quieten and make space for listening to what whispers underneath, allowing a return to the present moment. Slowness and queerness as technologies, questions as answers and mysticism as a path to healing when science alone does not suffice.

    London-based multidisciplinary artist El Hardwick’s sophomore album follows their experience of becoming chronically ill after years of treating their body like a machine. El explains: 'After failing to receive a diagnosis, which is only given via a lengthy process of elimination, I instead turned to autonomous modes of healing rooted in mysticism and herbalism; putting aside the need to be defined. My journey towards accepting my disability is told in parallel to my coming-out as trans. I also see my non-binary identity as a process of elimination: I am neither gender, both, in-between. It is through rewilding myself from capitalism and gender normativity that I learn how to connect to my body and the earth; no longer allowing either’s energy to be extracted from. The less I sought answers, language, metrics and analysis, the more peace I found.'

    TRACK LISTING

    The Queer Art Of Slowness
    Dual
    Quantology
    How Do I Know What I Want When Everybody Is Telling Me I Should Want What I Dont Have
    Laying On The Floor Staring Up At Dust In The Air
    Breathing Room
    Language Couldnt Say
    Pataphysical
    Wildest Imagination

    BZDP

    Jump Ship, Sit Lean, Be Still, Stand Tall

    A collaboration between Duncan Bellamy (Portico Quartet) and Belinda Zhawi (MA.MOYO), Jump Ship, Sit Lean, Be Still, Stand Tall is a collection of sonic-poetry that sets Zhawi’s illuminating, elliptical words in dialogue with diffuse, explorative music and sound by Bellamy. Fluctuating between expansive contemporary classical arrangements and intimate layered vocal experiments, together they render these disparate forms into something distinct, melancholic and luminous.

    Belinda Zhawi is a literary & sound artist based in London & Marseille, author of Small Inheritances (ignitionpress, 2018), & experiments with sound/text performance as MA.MOYO. Her work explores African diaspora research and narratives, and how art and education can be used as intersectional tools. Her literary & sound works have been featured on various platforms including The White Review, Vogue, NTS, Boiler Room & BBC Radio. She’s held residencies with Triangle-Asterides, France; Cove Park, Scotland; Serpentine Galleries; ICA London and was a Brixton House Associate Artist 2022 - 24. Belinda’s the co-founder of literary arts platform, BORN::FREE. She is working on her first full poetry collection.

    Duncan Bellamy (b. Cambridge, UK, 1986) is a multidisciplinary artist based in London. His diverse practice encompasses painting, silkscreen, photography, sound and music. His work examines the shape of time, loss and our relationship to the past and present in a period of compressed transformation. He is a founding member of Mercury Prize nominated Portico Quartet, and has contributed sound work to the artist Hannah Collins audio-visual installation I Will Make Up A Song. Bellamy is working on a debut exhibition and new music.

    TRACK LISTING

    Dancesing
    Stockwell
    Jump Ship
    Shield
    Water
    Tomb
    Dream Sequence
    La Recherche
    Holes
    Your Absence

    “Whispers From Ancient Vessels” is a collection of tales, speakings and relationships with nature’s beings such as trees, the sea and the inner self.

    The tracks pose as reflections of relearning to join with nature again. To grieve and to hope. To take in wise words, to listen to truth that can feel intense. Reconnection can be a painful process.

    The sounds and the visual identity of “Whispers From Ancient Vessels” is an attempt to remove the rose tinted view of nature and to put it at the forefront of the piece. Nature often tends to be a pretty backdrop where we come and go as we please. But this is a reminder that it is not separate from us and we exist as one. To realise its beautiful evil.

    To amplify alternative communication. The tracks are about listening to the wisdom of the earth, translating it and taking the wisdom on board. Being vulnerable to the rawness and darkness of the earth. Being vulnerable to truth, to change and proximity. Succumbing to oneness.


    TRACK LISTING

    Speakings I
    Whispers From Ancient Vessels
    Shoreline
    Dream Of The Rood
    Speakings II
    You're Mine

    Clara! hits AD93 with a 6 track LP ft. productions from the SKY H1, Pearson Sound & Low Jack.

    '"Pulso" is about sexual desire, my desire. Me as the subject, not only the object of it. I sing my pleasure and daydreams, because it's my body and my imagination, so I know what I like to feel."

    Sonically inspired by reggaeton, a genre that is personally nostalgic and reminiscent of times spent at parties listening to the imported genre as a teenager in her home country, Spain. Clara! works with producers who don’t usually dabble in the genre - SKY H1, Pearson Sound and Low Jack - in order to mix their own, unique universes with it. 

    It's another unwavering statement of intent from the anything-but-the-mainstream-goes, AD 93. 



    STAFF COMMENTS

    Matt says: Hauntingly alluring soundscapes, neck-snapping tight beats and seductive Spanish vocals equal another winner from the AD93 camp.

    TRACK LISTING

    Brillo
    Lluvia De Sal (Feat. El Manantial)
    Elle ( Feat. Kabaeushé)
    Te Llevo
    Pulso Gotas
    Pulso Charcos

    Composed, produced and arranged by Evangelia VS, the artist behind Abyss X, ‘Freedom Doll’ is the culmination of a year of emotional unloading through songwriting, offering an introspective journey into the ocean of her mind. Produced andorded between an artist residency near the Mayan jungle in Mexico and her Berlin home, the album chronicles transformations the performer tackled mentally during the writing process, tracing the rollercoaster of falling in love during the pandemic, as well as the pleasures and tribulations of womanhood.
    ‘Freedom Doll’ encapsulates the romantic escapade between her voice and the guitar. The amalgamation of seduction, sexual tension, vulnerability and assertiveness pulses throughout the entirety of the album, spiraling out of the cracks spawned from her vocal chords. From the twirling dance between her lush harmonies and the progressions of the acoustic guitar in tracks such as ‘Ascend’ and ‘From Hot to Cold’, to the explosive confrontation between the metallic and operatic qualities of her voice, the searing sound of the electric guitar in industrial rock / psychedelic anthems such as ‘Torture Grove’ and ‘Banyana’ and the cathartic momentum found in the gospel inclined chants in ‘A CHEW’ - ‘Freedom Doll’ untethers the dramatics and theatricality that defines Abyss X’s vocal performance and music production, while maintaining the sensual vibrations of her creative essence.

    ‘Freedom Doll’ is the encapsulation of the Minoan woman, the elusive harlequin tiptoeing her way through the circus of terror that is living and loving her way through womanhood. With this visual reference, Abyss X pays tribute to her ancestors and their groundbreaking ancient artistry. The back cover of the vinyl features a reiteration of depictions of bulls leaping found in Minoan frescoes; an inherently male cultural act that in the ancient Minoan times presumably gave expression to a tension that underlies man's somewhat tenuous mastery of nature. ‘Freedom Doll’’s artwork challenges this preconceived notion through an eco-feminist approach, bringing the Minoan woman slash Gaia in the seat of the bull leaper, taming the unhinged and predominantly male earth - threatening human force. 


    STAFF COMMENTS

    Matt says: Another week another alluring and mystic synth-pop masterpiece from the outlying AD93 label. Abyss X has a yearning, pop sensibility which in my ears at least, has a little bit of Christine & The Queens about it. Not all the way through though - sometimes she dives down the industrial synth wormhole with completely contrasting results.

    TRACK LISTING

    A1 - Ascend
    A2 - A Chew
    A3 - Torture Grove
    A4 - Oceans Of Heat
    A5 - Vacuum (feat. Juliana Huxtable)
    B1 - From Hot To Cold
    B2 - This Strange Asylum
    B3 - Banyana
    B4 - Feeling A Type Away
    B5 - Never Apart (feat. Juliana Huxtable)

    Whities changes its name to AD93 amid the current social wave of consciousness. This cutting edge, tastemaking label seems to go from strength to strength as it ushers in the new and unfounded. A various artists EP this one, kicking off with the sublime electronic glide of Bas Dobbelaer and their track "Diversion", which sounds perfect for the cold dark nights that lie ahead of us. Mucho Sueno proffer us a meditative, rhythmic hybrid that sounds like it’s suspended atop a great icy mountain while Martinou's "Let's Get Out Of Here" could well soundtrack the slow, steady journey down, encased in thick fog and snow blizzards. The amazing Sapphire Slows conclude proceedings with "Swirl", a dazzling and crystalline electro-pop ballad which fits perfectly with the slow, glacial aesthetic which seems to permeate through the whole EP. With records like this you don't need to fear the Winter....

    TRACK LISTING

    A1. Diversion - Bas Dobbelaer
    A2. Heart Of Glass - Mucho Sueno
    B1. Lets Get Out Of Here - Martinou
    B2. Swirl - Sapphire Slows


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