"in the summer, meet you on a corner street..."
I remember seeing David Bowie performing a cabaretesque version of "The Man Who Saved The World" on SNL way back in 1979 with the amazing Klaus Nomi and New York drag artist / cult movie star and more Joey Arias. It was a head turning experience, felt other worldly, avant garde with David resembling something between a French porcelain doll and a clown and Nomi and Arias (who sang back up wonderfully) like a crazy mixture of dominatrix and puritanism, an oppositional ying and yang and somehow giving off a crazy Betty Davis vibe. It all felt very futuristic and punk and daringly progressive all at the same time and I will never ever forget it.
When I listen to and see Papua New Guinea-born Australian-based R&B and future soul singer-songwriter NGAIIRE (as I have over the last year or so) extend her artistic, musical outreach bending genres along the way, she is poised in the same divergent art pop meets world music meets other worldly sensibilities in the same way a David Bowie (for example) would poke at the public so we would take notice by digging deep. On the Official Video for "Closer" she too becomes an art piece and a vehicle for social and historic conversations. It all begins with a stunning string arrangement by Novak Manojlovic and mastered by Justing Flynn (featuring Yuhki Mayne & Yena Choi on violins, Beth Condon on viola and Jack Ward on cello) as faceless figures wearing large flat brimmed hats that made me flash on the alchemist in Alejandro Jodorowsky’s surreal ‘The Holy Mountain’. "Closer" (the video) does feel completely filmic and also surreal amidst that heavenly natural beauty of the Eora Nation of the Garigal People in the Sydney basin in New South Wales, Australia.
NGAIIRE offers this about the Official Video:
"The whole story concept revolves around two lovers (Sela and her real life partner Mark Turner) who are a part of a cult who must abstain from any kind of affection, lust, love, sex to uphold age old beliefs. Their cover is blown and they are punished. The cult represents uniformity, culture, religion, ideology with the angular choreography further meant to reflect the militant and sometimes absurd ways in which we choose to move as groups of people.
The lovers represent the yearning to live outside of the boxes but unable to because of the perimeters that are there. I am merely a story teller within the story which Adam opted to have me dropped in a bit later as to not be the entire focal point of the story which I think works well especially since I had initially toyed with the idea of not being in it at all. I also serve to represent a choice made to be loud and proud against the backdrop of what society wants to dictate to me what I should act like - which is not a multi-faceted black woman."
After the beautiful string arrangement "Closer" spill out evocative synths and machine beats that feel at once late 70's techno and mid 80's electro pop. NGAIIRE's vox are exquisite in their R&B indie scope, layered with blending melodious shapes of soul, gospel and pop. Ngaire Laun Joseph as NGAIIRE continues to be a shape shifting artist with a killer vocal aesthetic and an experimental art pop countenance. Love what she does and all the talented folks who support her.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
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https://open.spotify.com/artist/0EMVeXueWGhcbbOvevDZPY?si=xEpy1R8iR8KcQ9PQ0kk8CA&nd=1
"The whole story concept revolves around two lovers (Sela and her real life partner Mark Turner) who are a part of a cult who must abstain from any kind of affection, lust, love, sex to uphold age old beliefs. Their cover is blown and they are punished. The cult represents uniformity, culture, religion, ideology with the angular choreography further meant to reflect the militant and sometimes absurd ways in which we choose to move as groups of people.
The lovers represent the yearning to live outside of the boxes but unable to because of the perimeters that are there. I am merely a story teller within the story which Adam opted to have me dropped in a bit later as to not be the entire focal point of the story which I think works well especially since I had initially toyed with the idea of not being in it at all. I also serve to represent a choice made to be loud and proud against the backdrop of what society wants to dictate to me what I should act like - which is not a multi-faceted black woman." - NGAIIRE
Having built a musical identity that effortlessly crosses genre and art form, her renowned vocals, tight beats and big pop sounds have seen NGAIIRE acquire countless accolades including four National Live Music Awards, an FBI Radio SMAC Award for best live act, Australian Music Prize and AIR Award nominations for her 2016 release Blastoma and the inaugural Australian Women in Music Award for Artistic Excellence. Not to mention gracing the stages of Glastonbury through to Splendour In The Grass, and touring alongside artists from Sufjan Stevens to Flume to Alicia Keys and John Legend.
NGAIIRE 'Closer' is available now via Majestic Casual.
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