I never overstood the sounds of the UK until I lived in the UK. I never knew the ghost of the UK until I looked into the faces of its citizens. I never overstood why the sounds of the UK spoke to me as a youth and still do to this day. I never felt the power of Dub until I went to an Abshanti or Jah Shaka Dance. I never saw what London looked like until I looked at it from the top of Stockwell Council estates. I never knew the magic of Manchester until I saw it for myself.
As I listen to the new Space Afrika & Rainy Miller collabo album A Grisaille Wedding that comes out on Nov. 16th via Fixed Abode I can’t help but have full-body chills. Songs like “The Graves At Charleroi (feat. Coby Sey)” remind me of the British skies I looked up to as I choked on my depression, but within this despair, I knew there would be better days. The production on this track rolls over your reality like fog rising in the morning and Coby Sey’s voice is a lantern full of cold bliss. A Grisaille Wedding is an album that is not background music but music that feeds your inner self the sonic nourishment that it needs. I’m not surprised that Space Afrika & Rainy Miller have manifested a record that has no mother or father to its sound. The tunes you experience while listening to A Grisaille Wedding are full of audio textures that can only be created by these artists! The massive tune “1-2-1” drops mad jewels about the reality of relationships and really hits home for me.
To say that I’m happy about this project would be an understatement. Space Afrika & Rainy Miller joining forces is a dream come true for me because in the past they have manifested some of my favorite projects. What is evident about A Grisaille Wedding is the creativity and passion that these artists have for each other’s creations because I can hear in every soundscape that I experience on this majestic sonic event! I will never overstand the true power of A Grisaille Wedding until the vinyl is playing in our while I look out into the Vancouver sky!
“The record’s title figuratively describes the marriage of two similarly motivated perspectives, each affected by a common backdrop and familiar ground tread amongst the scrimmage of urban sprawl, sombre, a boisterous landscape and clouds of uncertainty.” And adds:
Space Afrika
“Yet this time the grey, also represents a sense of maturity and a reconciliation in our method of response. The concept of wedding reflects a joyous toast to the blossoming fruit of an anticipated collaboration and the decorative ornaments that glaze an emotive body of music and honour a partnership of duty. It embodies a spectrum of reflection and emotion as much as can be experienced during such an occasion.”
