Some very maternal feelings this week with Momma and Moor Mother, while the alliterations continues and takes a turn with Massacre's Mythos
This week, Momma becomes a Household Name, Moor Mother drops Jazz Codes, and Massacre removes the poison.
This week’s top picks:
- Momma – Household Name
- Moor Mother – Jazz Codes
- Massacre – Mythos
Read all the latest music news here.
Momma – Household Name
Working closely with bandmate and producer Aron Kobayashi Ritch, a lot of careful consideration has gone into every audible element of Household Name.
“We had so much time to mess around with things,” Etta notes. “Aron Kobayashi Ritch, who plays bass for us and is our producer, he showed us different sounds, tones and break beats and things like that. I think we didn’t really expect some things to fall into our record, specifically break beats. I never really thought about that in a Momma song. Now I’m obsessed with it.
“We did half of the recording in Brooklyn and half of it in LA. In Brooklyn, we did it at a real studio. Then in LA, we did it at Aron’s home studio, which is practically a real studio as well.
Their sound perfectly encapsulates the sounds of old school grunge and rock, while perfectly mixing in current indie vibes, this could be considered a result of Momma’s rich music listening repertoire.
“We kind of started listening to beabadoobee while we were recording this, obviously she’s been around for a while, and we were referencing her a lot, in terms of her choruses and a lot of the production work.”
Moor Mother – Jazz Codes
“It’s poetry that drives this album. The stories of these artists and countless others not named but felt – is the leading motivation. I wanted to honour & give offerings, hold them in my body, dream with them, send sweetness.” – Camae Ayewa (Moor Mother)
Jazz Codes uses poetry as a starting point, but the collection moves toward more melody, more singing voices, more choruses and more complexity. In its warm, densely layered course through jazz, blues, soul, hip-hop, Jazz Codes sets the ear blissfully adrift and unhitches the mind from habit.
Through her work, Ayewa illuminates the principles of her interdisciplinary collaborative practice Black Quantum Futurism, a theoretical framework for creating counter-chronologies and envisioning Black quantum womanist futures that rupture exclusionary versions of history and future through art, writing, music, and performance.
Massacre – Mythos
Following a “slaying” performance at Maryland Deathfest last weekend, Floridian death metal juggernauts, Massacre have released a new EP Mythos. The inspiration for the record’s first single ‘Behind The Serpent’s Curse’ was shared by vocalist Kam Lee: “‘Behind the Serpent’s Curse’ is lyrically inspired by and roughly based on the Lovecraft short story The Curse Of Yig, but is also the most metaphorically lyrical based song I’ve written in Massacre, and that is directly inspired by actual real life circumstances.
It acts like a warning of sorts and is a foretelling of how it’s been like dealing with certain toxic individuals in my life. It indirectly relates to individuals whom always seem to come in pairs, and how, like serpents these people spread their venomous poison (lies).
