Afriqua, "Turner" (R&S)

I messed up and forgot to post this track before Afriqua's November 10 set at Re-bar. (Did anyone go? I was wallowing in '90s math-rock nostalgia at the June of 44 show last night and missed it.) Anyway, better late than never.

Afriqua (aka Berlin-via-Vriginia producer Adam Longman Parker) recently released his debut album, Colored, on the prestigious Belgian label R&S—home to classic records by Aphex Twin, Model 500, Joey Beltram, etc. Inspired by soul-jazz titans such as Quincy Jones, Roy Ayers, and Weldon Irvine as well as fellow Virginians Missy Elliott, Timbaland, and the Neptunes, Afriqua alchemizes those influences into ultra-modern conceptions of black music. Colored is a gleaming confluence of futuristic R&B, funkadelicized house, abstract electronica, spacey rap, and subterranean techno. In a press release, Parker said, "The overarching theme was reconciling this branch of the Black musical tree with its origins."

One of several pinnacles of Colored is "Turner." It starts like something off an '80s Jon Hassell LP, its mysterious, vaporous atmospheres and unusual percussion timbres building tantalizing suspense. Two-thirds in, Afriqua finally brings in the beats, creating a nonchalant house lope, but the whole track is swathed in otherness, not unlike the best work of English producer Actress. It's a banger in the world's weirder clubs. Let's hope Afriqua returns to Seattle soon, as Colored is one of the most interesting debut full-lengths of 2019.