Pitchfork Staff Picks for Bandcamp's Juneteenth Fundraiser
Today, people around the world will pause in observance of Juneteenth, the commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States. In this solemn time of protest against violence toward Black people, the day takes on additional weight. At Bandcamp, it is also an opportunity to support Black artistry and civil rights: all day, for any purchase made on the site, the company will donate 100% of their share of sales to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. (Many artists and labels are also donating their shares of Bandcamp sales to various racial justice organizations today.) Here, Pitchfork staffers share the releases by Black artists they’re excited to buy today.
Armand Hammer: ROME
2017
The description of ROME on Bandcamp calls the album “an unsparing indictment of everything,” and that might be underselling it. This isn't Nero fiddling as the city burns; it’s Tacitus keeping record of all the chaos. There are lessons to be learned amid the death of an empire. billy woods and Elucid—the duo who comprise Armand Hammer—are two of the most incisive and caustic rappers working, and ROME is like a watering hole for like-minded artists: JPEGMAFIA, Quelle Chris, and more. The bars are so pointed, they feel prescient. To open “Microdose,” Elucid raps, “I was born in the year of this country's last recorded lynching/My question is, who stopped recording?” That lyric was already ringing in my ears, but in the wake of recent news, it has become nearly deafening. –Sheldon Pearce
Luckaleannn: Flexican Mayor
2010s
I recently revived my iPod Classic and, after scrolling through countless mixtapes I regret downloading, I landed on Luckaleannn’s Flexican Mayor. Released at some point in the mid-2010s, the tape is maybe the most underappreciated release (of many) from the D.C.-based label and crew Goth Money Records. On beats that seem intended to make as much noise as possible, Luckaleannn raps about some notable moments in his life: the time he had 10 cellphones, the time he went to an art show, the time he used his bank code. How could I have forgotten this? –Alphonse Pierre
Space Afrika: hybtwibt?
2020
This new album from Manchester, England dub techno duo Space Afrika captures our current moment of unrest with a heavy heart and quick feet. hybtwibt? (short for have you been through what i've been through?) gracefully weaves grim synths with field recordings of Black Lives Matter demonstrations, speeches, and laments. These tracks are short and devastating. Over elegiac strings and soul melisma, a young voice sobs about the racist violence that childhood cannot protect her from: “It’s a shame that we have to go to that graveyard and bury them. We shouldn’t have to.” A man quickly, tiredly details how the police state aggravates Black citizens over ambient psychedelic tones. Car horns and urgent cries of protests—“they’re shooting people, anyone that walks down there!”—give way to a bleak drone that refuses to abate. –Stacey Anderson
King Britt: “Back 2 Black”
2020
Philadelphia’s King Britt has long been a fixture of the American electronic scene. Since getting his start in the 1990s as Digable Planets’ DJ, he’s focused on his own music, weaving strands of funk, soul, broken beat, and deep house together. In recent years, under his Fhloston Paradigm alias, Britt has turned his attention to modular synthesis, releasing ambient and ambient-adjacent records on Hyperdub and his own King Britt Archives.
“Back 2 Black” is Britt’s new single for Black Catalogue—the imprint founded by Monty Luke, former manager of Carl Craig’s famed Planet E label—and it’s some of his most absorbing work. A heady take on deep techno, it starts with a slinky synth melody winding around a rippling drum machine; as it gathers mass, it morphs into something more nuanced, with twin leads trading a melodic call-and-response. If its title gestures back to dance music’s Black roots, its sound pushes boldly into the future. –Philip Sherburne
Oddboy TEN: ulogy
2018
ulogy, South London singer-producer Oddboy TEN’s only release on Bandcamp, is ripe for revisiting. Jazzy and muted, it sweeps you into a world of calm reflection. Oddboy TEN weaves in elements of his Nigerian upbringing with humor and style, nearly scatting as he riffs on a traditional rice dish: “Finish your plate so you’ll grow tall, strong, and handsome/The world will be tough on you,” he sings lightly on “Iya,” an ode to his mother. ulogy folds its arms around you in a nurturing embrace. –Mankaprr Conteh
Kelis: Food
2014
In 2014, a decade-and-a-half into a chameleonic career, Kelis Rogers released Food. After the primal scream of “Caught Out There” and the game-changing digital funk of “Milkshake,” it was another surprising turn: subtle and understated, fueled by a relaxed live-band groove and produced by TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek. On tracks like the horn-laden “Jerk Ribs” and the exquisite Labi Siffre cover “Bless the Telephone” (a duet with TVOTR’s Tunde Adebimpe), Kelis sounded more relaxed and comfortable than ever before, her voice raw but unburdened. In the years since Food’s release, Kelis has put out precious little music, other than the occasional guest appearance. Instead, she has mostly focused on literal food, releasing a cookbook, hosting a Netflix cooking show, running a sauce company, and generally living her best life on a farm in California. –Amy Phillips
ONO: Red Summer
2020
You will not hear an album this year as steeped in history as Red Summer, the latest opus from the experimental Chicago outfit ONO. Its buzzing, dissonant tracks are filled with names and dates, statistics, and stories, with specificity that feels eerily timely. The album title refers to the summer and fall of 1919—an era of widespread white supremacist crimes against Black people in America—but its narratives span centuries. It opens 300 years earlier, when Africans were first kidnapped to be enslaved in North America, and travels through the present day. Touching on dub, spoken word poetry, and industrial noise, the music is alive and inspired, vicious and disturbing; it’s art that reflects the horror of the present by scouring the past. –Sam Sodomsky
Channel Tres: Black Moses
2019
Channel Tres has the kind of deep, commanding voice that might lend itself to melodramatic “in a world…” voiceovers. The vibey, future-focused deep house of last year’s Black Moses EP is part underground club night and part laid-back West Coast jam, with Tres’ low, intimate vocals the true hook throughout. The Compton native first gasses up with “Brilliant N***a” and the JPEGMAFIA-featuring title track—playful boasts that celebrate Black pride and artistry. “I used to ask for change in the streets/Now I’m changing the streets,” he raps. So titling another song “Sexy Black Timberlake” represents its own cultural critique—but first, allow Channel Tres to remind you: That’s him. –Anna Gaca
Anz: Spring/Summer Dubs 2019
2019
If you put on Spring/Summer Dubs 2019 at a party, people might assume you’re playing a shiny mix by a DJ who headlines massive clubs. However, this impeccable blend of house, jungle, grime, and R&B is actually a production mix of original music and edits by the Manchester producer Anz. For 50 minutes, she takes us on a joyous path through club music’s many forms; by the end, you’ll believe there’s no style that she can’t produce. (Look out for the sequel later this month.) –Noah Yoo
Beverly Glenn-Copeland: Keyboard Fantasies
1986
Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s music is an instant balm for anxiety. Recently, I was excited to see that his 1986 album Keyboard Fantasies had returned to Bandcamp after a long absence. Touching on elements of folk, jazz, and electronic music, it’s a quiet, meditative record that blooms with joy and gratitude. While some of Glenn-Copeland’s other records evoke the folk poetry of another Canadian heartbreaker, Joni Mitchell, these synth-heavy songs show his own wandering spirit. –Quinn Moreland
Asuquomo: Diobu
2020
Asuquomo’s latest EP is titled after a neighborhood in his home country, Nigeria, and it has the warmth of a family reunion. On “Yahweh,” Diobu’s opening track, his voice resonates over hand drums, hi-hats, and rich backing harmonies—a leap from the sharp, motor-mouthed verses of his previous records. Though Diobu is more rooted in Afrobeat than Asuquomo’s past releases, he remains deeply invested in the immigrant experience within his current city, Ottawa; on “Feel at Home,” he repeats the title insistently, as if trying to will that peace into being. –Madison Bloom
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