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Sumac & Moor Mother – The Film (2LP)

40.00  inc. VAT

What happens when you combine SUMAC: a band that uses the volume, distortion, and guitar-centric approach of metal to make music that has the malleability of jazz and textural exploration of noise with Moor Mother: a poet and sound artist that has deconstructed hip hop to a point where it’s less about rhyme and rhythm (though obviously both are present in her work) and more about oratorical cadence and power.

 

The Film is an album that takes attributes of both artists’ work and finds common ground in shifting musical patterns, and expressive force. The record is a musical thumbing of their noses at the more traditional approaches of their respective fields, an innovative, powerhouse of an album. The Film’s moniker speaks to the fact that it is conceived and delivered as a complete album, a full story or narrative. Moor Mother puts it best: “The idea is to create a moment outside of the convention. This is a work of art. Thinking about the work as a Film, instead of an album or a collection of songs. This task is impossible in an industry that wants to force everything into a box of consumption. You won’t understand or get the full picture until the artwork is completed. This work is developing and is requesting more agency within the creative process.”

 

The Film does have clear themes running throughout – again Moor Mother expounds: “the themes are universal in nature – land – displacement – the climate – human rights and freedoms – war and peace – the idea of running away from the many violent forces and horrific systems of man and empire.” Heavy, holy, hypnotizing – beyond existence, beyond the fettered constraints of normality, past the false notions of the indoctrinated disguised as the organic, planets form; the detritus of cosmic stuff merges into galaxies, into something that can sound like it’s populated by suns. The Film is just such a work, a nebulitic collaboration between SUMAC and Moor Mother. The Film was recorded at Studio Litho in Seattle with Scott Evans. The album includes appearances by guest vocalists Kyle Kidd, Sovie, and Candice Hoyes. SUMAC and Moor Mother will be playing select dates worldwide together, including a performance at Roadburn Festival just ahead of album release. This double album is packaged in a custom obi designed by Aaron Turner featuring paintings by Turner and art concepts by Moor Mother.

 

“…like self-perpetuating obstacle courses in hell. Ricocheting between formidable doom and barbed improvisation, Sumac sound preternaturally belligerent.” – Pitchfork, 8.4 Best New Music

 

“A forcefield for fending off some unseen evil, a testament to metal’s transcendent energy. Sumac makes ecstatic music for a world that can still save itself, if only it would try.” – Bandcamp

 

“Across eight albums, Moor Mother—aka Camae Ayewa—has bore witness to history’s sins, threading connections between past, present, and future in a sensory overload fusing industrial noise, “witch rap,” and free jazz.” – Pitchfork

 

“her music sustains a constant, complementary tension between the hushed, folkloric mantras and defiant Afrofuturist litanies she shares, her sound drawing freely from noise, jazz, blues and beats while respecting the practice of each mode.” – The Guardian

 

TRACKLIST

 

1.
Scene 1
2.
Scene 2 The Run
3.
Hard Truth
4.
Scene 3
5.
Scene 4
6.
Camera
7.
The Truth Is Out There
8.
Breathing Fire

Release date: 2025-04-25

Genre

Alternative/Indie/Punk, Electronic Music/Dance, Metal

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Clear
Catalogue Number: THRILL-629 SKU: CR06669 Availability: Available on backorder

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