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- Summary: The debut full-length release for Brittney Parks as Sudan Archives features influences from electronic, R&B and African music.
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- Record Label: Stones Throw
- Genre(s): R&B
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Score distribution:
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Positive: 14 out of 15
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Mixed: 1 out of 15
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Negative: 0 out of 15
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Nov 1, 2019While some of the diversity obviously comes from her tasteful selection of collaborators, including Wilma Archer (Jessie Ware, Nilufer Yanya), Rodaidh McDonald (The xx, Sampha) and Paul White (Danny Brown, Charli XCX), there’s never any questions whose unique vision is behind this innovative, unusual and inviting album.
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Oct 28, 2019Showcases her eclecticism in technique and execution on her magnificent terms.
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Oct 29, 2019Athena isn’t just an album to be listened to, it’s to be experienced. While this is arguably true of all music, this album is filled with deeply textured soundscapes that feel contemporary but also from the not-too-distant future.
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Oct 31, 2019All the added instrumental layering and effects -- wriggling synthesizers, buzzing basslines, ricocheting percussion, apparition-like vocal processing, and suchlike -- are nuanced, not once getting in the way of a musician who can put forth an affecting message with just her voice and violin.
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UncutNov 19, 2019It brings together the many facets of Sudan Archives--religious and sensual, independent and codependent, tender and menacing--in a way that feels very deliberate, particularly when you learn that the final tracklisting was whittled down from around 60 potential songs. [Dec 2019, p.28]
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Nov 1, 2019Parks’s debut contains some of the most electrifying and viscerally gorgeous music put to record this year. She may have been inspired by north African one-stringed fiddle-playing and ethnomusicology more generally, but Parks wears her erudition lightly.
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Oct 28, 2019The songs often lean more towards the arty end of the mainstream, losing touch slightly with the startling radicalism of Sudan Archives’ early sound.
Score distribution:
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Positive: 1 out of 2
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Mixed: 1 out of 2
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Negative: 0 out of 2
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Aug 22, 2020This review contains spoilers, click expand to view.
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Sep 12, 2022
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