Space Afrika is readying their Honest Labour LP for release on August 27th via Dais. The effort of Josh Reidy and Joshua Inyangis, the album is a follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2020 “hybtwibt?” (have you been through what i’ve been through?) mixtape. Originally recorded as an NTS show, the set was so well received that it was released on its own before becoming Pitchfork and Bandcamp’s best ambient album of the year. The duo’s upcoming release continues to expand upon their ambient palette of “overlapping moments,” even as these “oblique mosaics of dialogue, rhythm, texture, and shadow” find the pair joined vocally by various members of the Bristol-based collective Young Echo.
The album’s title refers both to a member of Inyang’s Nigerian family tree who was called “Honest Labour” for his loyalty and resilience, as well as the notion that art and music form a path of “right effort” when pursued as a “labor of love.” Space Afrika’s dedication to their craft, as well as their willingness to evolve as a creative unit, is immediately apparent on the 19-track album. While the duo bills the record as an “homage to U.K. energy,” it is also clearly affected by COVID conditions, and as such, it is also “an album about love and loss.”
Today we watch the video for “Rings” featuring guest. The track’s dreamy narrative and lullaby tones give it a hazy, half-lidded vibe, but rhythmic blasts of processed noise keep the atmosphere unsettled and on edge. The video was directed by the photographer/filmmaker/poet Tibyan Mahawah Sanoh, and it follows his collaboration with the duo on “Untitled (To Describe You),” a short film that premiered at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2020.
