A photo of an underpass under a bridge
Blog

Studios Playlist 005


21 May 2020

Introducing a new weekly playlist guided by the contents of the week's digital programme and its associated artists, music in its surrounding orbit. We’ll be compiling each shorter weekly selection into a rolling playlist for your longer listening needs.

Energy – SAMPA THE GREAT FEAT. NADEEM DIN-GABISI

This week’s playlist kicks off with Energy, an all-powerful statement on female strength by Zambian born, Australia-based Sampa The Great, featuring spoken word from Studios alumni Nadeem Din-Gabisi.

During his residency at Somerset House Studios, Nadeem developed his multi-media project POOL, examining the mental health issues of many young Black men, born in inner and outer London. Questioning why some sink, why some swim and why others don’t enter the POOL. Also check out How To Be Free, a podcast Nadeem made as part of this body of work.
 

YOU WILL FIND IT – MYKKI BLANCO FEAT. FALTYDL, DEVENDRA BANHART

The next track comes from Mykki Blanco in collaboration with FaltyDL and Davendra Banhart.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Mykki Blanco says, “‘You Will Find It’ is a meditation. I don’t believe that everything spiritual has to feel so heavy and serious; I feel the opposite, actually. If people associated prayer with laughter, if prayer was made to feel sensual and funny and bitchy and ordinary, then I think more people would be comfortable acknowledging some kind of personal divine connection. This song is about exploring that connection: I should be able to smoke a joint with God and just chill a bit.”
 

MY SEX – BROOKE CANDY FEAT. PUSSY RIOT, MNDR, MYKKI BLANCO

“My sex is unconquered / Not the church, not the state, my own fate”

Here Mykki Blanco, also known for platforming and centering LGBTQ+ issues, lends a verse to this sex-positive banger by Brook Candy, also featuring the Russian feminist protest punk rock group Pussy Riot.

ISHU – SLIKBACK, HYPH11E

This week’s Studios recommended playlist was from Kenyan DJ and producer Slikback and showcases a blistering mix of all-originals that travels into the "darker parts" of his hip-hop, dancehall, trap & gqom influence. Delve a little deeper and listen to ISHU, the opening track from his most recent album Slip B.

Wrapping up this eclectic playlist we have two tracks inspired by the work of Studios resident Laura Grace Ford. One from her collaborator Jam City and the other from the era of music that influenced her when writing her book Savage Messiah.

Laura’s audio work Open Your Palm See The Dust Settling There is this week’s PAUSE feature and responds to the psychic and emotional contours of London, made from field recordings and fragments of found music, the spectral sectors of the city permeate across the work.

Proud – Jam City

From Jam City’s 2015 album, Dream A Garden.

How Much Longer – The Pop Group

From How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder? By The Pop Group, 1980 release.