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CMU Approved
Approved: Ala.ni
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 21 January 2020
Three years on from her debut album – ‘You & I’ – Ala.ni is set to release the follow-up – ‘Acca’ – this week. Working largely acapella again, she continues to find new ways to build new worlds with just singing, beatboxing and percussive slapping that avoid many of the pitfalls of other similarly created music.
Perhaps that’s because many of her songs have simple beginnings. Previous single ‘Bitch’ – featuring a small contribution from Iggy Pop – began as a note written to a boyfriend. Latest single ‘Papa’ also began with no intention for it to be sung.
She explains: “This song started out as a poem, written for a girlfriend with recurring dramas with men. A year after writing the poem and whilst in Mexico together, I read it to her. ‘Papa didn’t love me, any man take me’. She quickly exclaimed ‘that is a song lyric!’ So we proceeded to jam around this idea”.
“I took it back to Paris and started to work on the production and soon realised, maybe these words are applicable to me also”, she goes on. “Daddy issues… Oh the healing powers of music. No instruments used on this track, only vocals and a beatboxer. Studio walls were banged, chests, faces tapped and slapped and also a Cuban butt, all to create the percussion”.
‘Acca’ is out on Friday. Watch the video for ‘Papa’ here:
