Das britische Live Electronics-Duo Space Afrika hat erstmals bei Dais Records unterzeichnet und bringt Ende August den näcgsten Longplayer heraus. “Honest Labour” ist das erste Album seit dem vor rund drei Jahren erschienenen “Somewhere Decent to Live”, dazwischen gab es kleinere Releases wie ein als 10″ veröffentlichter Soundtrack und das Mixtape “Have you been through what i’ve been through?”. Erneut präsentieren die beiden Producer Josh Reidy und Joshua Inyang eine fulminante Mixtur aus ambienter Elektronik, Saitenspiel, fragmenthaften Soundideen und Vocals, die von verschiedenen MCs und anderen Gästen beigesteuert werden – “oblique mosaics of dialogue, rhythm, texture, and shadow, half-heard through a bus window on a rainy night”, wie es beim Label heißt. “Honest Labour” erscheint in drei unterschiedlichen Vinyl-Editionen sowie digital und auf CD. 
“The album title is tiered, alluding to a legendary patriarch from co-founder Joshua Inyang’s Nigerian family tree (who was lovingly called “Honest Labour” for his loyalty and resilience) as well as the nature of self-designated work, such as Space Afrika’s music – a “labor of love” in its truest sense. With fellow co-founder Joshua Reid recently relocated to Berlin, the pair began sharing files last fall, piecing together poetic vignettes of looping haze and found sound, inspired by the notion of “records that leave an impression, and help the listener deal with their life.” As the isolation of Covid compounded with the worsening winter, the songs skewed increasingly introspective and emotive, reflecting a mood of dissipating futures and the infinite nocturnal unknown. The artists cite two core motivations for Honest Labour: to transcend the sum of their influences, and “to show what we’re capable of.” Both ambitions are entirely realized. The collection’s 19 tracks flow with a synergy and sophistication as rare as they are radical, untethered to the dusty dub-techno templates of Space Afrika’s early years. These are interstitial anthems, expressionistic and open-ended, delirious but deliberate, attuned to the drift and dreamstate of the present moment: “Ultimately this is an homage to U.K. energy, and an album about love and loss.” (Dais)
African Paper
