Brooklyn – Every summer, since 2005, Afropunk Fest ascends on one of our favorite New York City boroughs: Brooklyn. The festival was named after James Spooner’s 2003 documentary Afro-Punk, and was created as a means to give people of color, but specifically black men and women, a safe space to build a community within the punk subculture. The festival has expanded over the years to include multiple genres, but especially soul music, R&B, and hip hop. This year, the festival brought “the power to party” to Commodore Barry Park on August 27th and 28th, with a splendid line-up, including the legendary George Clinton, Ice Cube, TV on the Radio, Bad Brains, and Living Colour. Of course, there were also plenty of new bands performing, and Best New Bands was on hand to catch some of them.
Flying Lotus
Flying Lotus has proven himself a master of hybridizing the sonically familiar with the surreal, casting a consistently invigorating bent across jazz, hip hop, and electronic music to create his own energized, entirely unprecedented sound. Tucked between several sheer layers of projection screens erupting with vibrant, dynamic visuals, FlyLo brought the evening to a transcendent close with a set that included reimagined renditions of “Do the Astral Plane” and “Can’t Catch Me,” in addition to effortlessly banging remixes of Travis Scott, ScHoolBoy Q’s “Collard Greens,” Aphex Twin’s “Avril 14,” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Wesley’s Theory.” A mesmerizing set from an inspired musical visionary, embraced by an enthusiastic crowd an ideal way to close night one of Afropunk.
Laura Mvula
Laura Mvula claimed her space as a vibrant and empowered presence on Afropunk’s Green Stage Saturday night. Armed with a bright white keytar, elaborate face paint, and a regal red patterned jumpsuit, the Mercury Prize-nominated artist opened her set with a guttural rendition of “Let Me Fall,” followed by “Flying Without You,” much to the crowd’s approval. Prior to taking the stage, Mvula was introduced by poet Nikki Giovanni, who read a piece of her own, and announced the upcoming release of her new film entitled Going To Mars. The motif of finding strength in one’s own voice, through any artistic medium, prevailed throughout Mvula’s set, proving that rebellion for the sake of revolution takes many beautiful forms.
Thundercat
Momentous, groovy, and soulful, Thundercat brought movement by way of infectious bass-infused melodies to the Afropunk crowd on Saturday night, backed by a live band and flashy background graphics. Covering Kendrick Lamar‘s “Complexion” and revamping “Them Changes” for his live set, the Los Angeles born musician kept the audience moving with a jazzy set and unassuming stage presence that made for an effortlessly danceable set.
Kelela
Since the release of her debut 2013 mixtape Cut 4 Me and last year’s Hallucinogen, Kelela has received a slew of positive praise from critics, as well as fellow artists. Idiosyncratic beats, warped vocals, and twisting electronic textures comprise her feathery, haunting delivery – her live performance provides a grounding element to the ethereality of her recorded work, but in a way that humanizes the more surreal elements of her sound, resulting in an upbeat, permeating live set, saturated in vibrant energy that remained sustained and accessible throughout Sunday night at Afropunk.
Kelsey Lu
Hypnotic cellist and singer-songwriter Kelsey Lu has collaborated with Dev Hynes and toured with Florence and the Machine - massive formal recognition for an artist who just released a debut album this year. But Lu is a powerful and subtly dramatic presence to behold; recognition is not only deserved, but, upon being witnessed live, seemingly inevitable. There is a magnetic certainty in the story Lu feels drawn to convey through music, encircling all who are within earshot with a slow-building atmosphere that collects like snow falling lightly, but compounding into something much heavier… and beautifully foreboding.
Seinabo Sey
Swedish singer Seinabo Sey channeled existential uncertainty with grace and soul, inverting all of her doubts about life purpose and identity with confidence, intensity, and fervor, as she delivered her set on Sunday night at Afropunk, which included her single ”Younger,” as well as tracks from 2015′s Pretend. Having gone to music school at 16 in Stockholm to study the likes of Aretha Franklin and classic soul, the 25 year-old artist projected an unmistakable confidence into the crowd, holding her own as proof of the importance of pursuing and trusting one’s personal calling, and coming out on the other side thriving, belting her artistic dream.
As expected, Afropunk Fest Brooklyn 2016 was amazing and filled with heaps of talent and up and coming artists. Here’s to Afropunk 2017 and even more new bands!
Photography by Julia Drummond for Best New Bands.
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Lee Barnes
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- New Bands at Afropunk Fest Brooklyn 2016 - August 30, 2016
