Today, Africa Express has shared two new singles in celebration of their highly anticipated forthcoming studio album, Africa Express presents. “Soledad” features Damon Albarn, Luisa Almaguer, Nick Zinner, Seye Adelekan, Joan as Police Woman and the Mexican Institute of Sound. “Otim Hop” features Otim Alpha, Bootie Brown, K.O.G. and Tom Excell.
“Soledad” is a stunning cinematic duet sung in Spanish by Damon Albarn and Luisa Almaguer, a melancholic and beautiful track with mournful lyrics that intone “Soledad soledad soledad sin fin” (“Loneliness, loneliness, endless loneliness.”) The ditty accompanied by “Otim Hop,” which is a cool slice of laid-back hip-hop with Bootie Brown’s slick tale of a hustle spliced with Ugandan Afrofuturist Otim Alpha’s autobiographical lyrics about “big man running trying to escape poverty.”
Mexican singer-songwriter and trans community advocate Luisa Almaguer says: “‘Soledad’ and Africa Express are both symbolic and material examples of reparation for the historical debt that whiteness and the mainstream owe to racialized and independent artists around the world. It makes me very happy to be part of this, it still feels like a dream to me. It’s a beautiful glitch in the Matrix.”
Photo Credit: Marv Watson
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