Moor Mother signs to Don Giovanni Records; listen to “Deadbeat Protest”

We’ve admired Philly artist Camae Defstar since catching her genre-smashing band Mighty Paradocs on Res’ Silk City residency RESET back in December 2010. In the six years since, we’ve gotten to know her as a community organizer and activist, a co-founder of the ROCKERS! DIY concert series and an interdisciplinary artist. On the sonic end of things, that means Moor Mother, which channels societal outrage into textural, hard-hitting, experimental expanses. A prime example, which caught my attention three autumns ago, is the video for “Of Blood” – it’s totally gripping, and like Moor Mother’s work as a whole, strikes a balance between confrontationally unsettling and utterly captivating. It’s punk, it’s performance art and it’s sonic unrest of the sort that is more important now than ever.

Which is why it’s so awesome to get the word today that Moor Mother has joined the ranks of Don Giovanni Records, with her debut record Fetish Bones due out on September 16th via the venerable NJ imprint. From the label:

The album features 13 songs conceived and recorded in Camae’s home studio using a variety of machines, field recordings, and analog noisemakers. The music is often harsh and strange, projecting both the visceral anger of punk and the expansive improvisatory spirit of Sun Ra. It’s an album intended as a form of protest and also as form of time travel — a collection of sounds that are events themselves, telling stories rich in history about the journey that brings us to today and the future we are creating. Fetish Bones is not an album meant to help you forget. It is made so that you will remember the injustices that we bear witness to and participate in.

Pre-order the record here, and listen to the track “Deadbeat Protest” below. Moor Mother performs at PhilaMOCA on Sunday, August 7th with Guerrilla Toss; more information on the show can be found here.