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SPACE AFRIKA

Rainy Miller & Space Afrika

A Grisaille Wedding

    Fixed Abode label head Rainy Miller met Space Afrika through regular nights he runs at Salford’s The White Hotel, a hub for leftfield electronic music. What started out as an idea for a collaborative EP between Rainy and Space Afrika turned into a longer form project, with features from Mica Levi, Coby Sey, Richie Culver, Voice Actor and Iceboy Violet - amongst others.

    A Grisaille Wedding is an immersive experience that fills the space these artists have come to dwell in during their creative journeys. It not only pushes the boundaries of music but also bridges regional dialects within the conversation of contemporary electronic music.

    Rainy Miller: “A Grisaille Wedding is a project based in the personification of the semi-fictitious world that Space Afrika have come to build over the years. Using musique concrete and British soundscapes, I wanted to fuse the sonic with both noise and the contemporary.”

    Space Afrika: “The record’s title figuratively describes the marriage of two similarly motivated perspectives, each affected by a common backdrop and familiar ground tread amongst the scrimmage of urban sprawl, sombre, a boisterous landscape and clouds of uncertainty.”

    TRACK LISTING

    1. Summon The Spirit / Demon
    2. Maybe It's Time To Lay Down The Arms
    3. 00-Down / Murmansk, 12
    4. Sweet (I'm Free)
    5. Shelter
    6. HDIF
    7. The Graves At Charleroi
    8. 1-2-1
    9. Let It Die
    10. I Believe In God, When Things Are Going My Way 

    Manchester’s Space Afrika make music of overlapping moments - oblique mosaics of dialogue, rhythm, texture and shadow, half-heard through a bus window on a rainy night. "Honest Labour", the group's first full-length since 2020's landmark "hybtwibt?" (have you been through what i’ve been through?) mixtape, expands the project's palette with classical strings, shimmering guitar and visionary vocal cameos, leaning further into their enigmatic fusion of ambient unrest and cosmic downtempo. It's a sound both fogged and fragmented, at the axis of song craft and sound design, born from and for the yearning solitudes of life under lockdown.

    The album title is tiered, alluding to a legendary patriarch from co-founder Joshua Inyang's Nigerian family tree (who was lovingly called Honest Labour for his loyalty and resilience) as well as the nature of self-designated work, such as Space Afrika's music – a labor of love in its truest sense. With fellow co-founder Joshua Reid recently relocated to Berlin, the pair began sharing files last Autumn, piecing together poetic vignettes of looping haze and found sound, inspired by the notion of 'records that leave an impression, and help the listener deal with their life.' As the isolation of Covid compounded with the worsening Winter, the songs skewed increasingly introspective and emotive, reflecting a mood of dissipating futures and the infinite nocturnal unknown.

    The artists cite two core motivations for "Honest Labour": to transcend the sum of their influences, and 'to show what we're capable of.' Both ambitions are entirely realized. The collection's 19 tracks flow with a synergy and sophistication as rare as they are radical, untethered to the dusty dub-techno templates of Space Afrika's early years. These are interstitial anthems, expressionistic and open-ended, delirious but deliberate, attuned to the drift and dreamstate of the present moment: ‘Ultimately this is an homage to U.K. energy, and an album about love and loss.’

    Conjuring up similar, claustrophobic internal release and emotions such as Burial’s “Untrue” and Hype Williams’ “Find Out What Happens When People Stop Being Polite…”; and even the brand new Joy O LP (“Still Slipping Vol. 1”), “Honest Labour” is the most intimate electronic conversation you’re going to get out of your headphones all year.

    STAFF COMMENTS

    Barry says: Honest Labour is an absolute masterclass in electronic atmospheres and melodic restraint, treading a fine line between ambient stillness and rich, textural sonics. A shadowy, stunningly effective distillation of all of Space Afrika's experience so far, and a brilliantly immersive listen.

    TRACK LISTING

    LP SIDE A
    A1 Yyyyyy2222
    A2 Indigo Grit Ft. Guest
    A3 Lose You Beau
    A4 Solemn
    A5 LV
    A6 Preparing The Perfect Response ~
    A7 Ny Interlude
    A8 Rings Ft. Guest
    A9 Noise Sweet
    A10 B£E Ft. Blackhaine

    LP SIDE B
    B1 Like Orchids
    B2 Meet Me At Sachas
    B3 U Ft. KinseyLloyd
    B4 <>
    B5 Girl Scout Cookies Ft. Bianca Scout
    B6 Ladybird Drone
    B7 With Your Touch
    B8 Strength Ft. LA Timpa
    B9 Honest Labour Ft. HforSpirit


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