The debut full- length album from Lafawndah, ANCESTORBOY, releasing on 22nd March 2019 via her own label imprint CONCORDIA, is abracing statement of intent, heralding an artist unbound in scope, scale, andintensity. It simply must be heard. Having in her prior self-titled and TANEPs upturned geography, in ANCESTOR BOY Lafawndah digs deep to unravel geology,mining emotions of the deep past and future. The album's physicality iselemental; its memory, mineral. It is a becoming- of- age story for a peopleyet to come, created out of a need to find the others. In the middle of thealbum's sonic and lyrical onslaught is the desire to share the uncertainties ofgrowing up when you don't belong anywhere. Crafted with the aid of fellow travelersNick Weiss, ADR, and L-Vis 1990, ANCESTOR BOY's maximalism- it's overflow ofdetail, of feeling, of ideas- serves to amplify a frequent lyrical motif: thesensation that one body, one lifetime, isn't big enough for what you'refeeling. The record is pregnant with memories shared across more than one mind,recalling the storytelling antagonisms of Nina Simone at her most strident andunpredictable. In response, the rhythmic aggressions of her music have growneven more determined and psychedelic, drawing a line in fire between JimmyJam's turnt industrialism on Control and the furious unease of Red Mecca-eraCabaret Voltaire. With a palate equal parts chrome and dirt,ice and depth, Lafawndah's finesse with song architecture imbues the LP with anuncanny addictiveness: anthems loaded with trap doors. ANCESTOR BOY imagines apop music that is neither imperial nor local, but a freedom of movement; aresidue, perhaps, from the album's nomadic creation between Los Angeles, MexicoCity, New York, London, and Paris
