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Artist News Releases
Saul Williams announces new album Encrypted & Vulnerable
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 27 June 2019
Saul Williams has announced new album ‘Encrypted & Vulnerable’. A development of the MartyrLoserKing character he created for his last record, it is also the soundtrack to the musical he announced last year.
“‘Encrypted & Vulnerable’ is simultaneously a personal and intimately optimistic takedown on struggle, defiance, awareness, aloneness”, says Williams. “And a takedown of heteronormative capitalistic patriarchal authoritarian politics in topics ranging from love, technology, religion, war to migration”.
The big musical innovation of this album is that it has no drums, with “invisible and implied beats” instead. Basically, if you think you’re hearing drums, you’re just imagining it.
Williams explains: “I wanted to make an album with invisible beats. I always want people to dance, but this time I wanted the drums to be DIY. I figured the drums in your head could be crazier and more complex than anything I could programme. So I started working on sounds that would instigate that. You feel the rhythm and you’re already dancing in anticipation of the drums… that was one goal of the album”.
It’s a bit like how I made you imagine a voice in your head reading this out loud. There is no voice! No one is talking! Have a blown your mind? Have I distracted you from the fact that I’m really not sure what Williams is talking about?
The first single from the album, ‘Experiment’, comes with one of those 360° virtual reality videos that were trendy a while ago. Have a watch here:
