Desire Marea – Desire (2020, South Africa)
Our next spotlight is on number 216 on The List, submitted by platenworm.
This is hands down one of my favourite finds from The List so far. It’s dramatic and satisfying yet intimate and vulnerable, and brilliantly mixes a variety of sounds and genres. With my untrained ear, I would’ve said it sounds like a queer experimental electronic/art rock/avant-pop hybrid that would be comfortable on the same playlist/stage as Anohni and Moses Sumney, with other unexpected sounds borrowing from industrial and even jazz. But reading more learned people describe this album and artist (and their other work), I realize yet again how much I don’t know, and how there are so many more sonic corners of this world to explore.
The album is the solo debut from multidisciplinary artist and sangoma Buyani Duma aka Desire Marea, who is also (or, was previously?) in FAKA, alongside Thato Ramaisa aka Fela Gucci. Founded in 2015, FAKA is/was a multimedia performance art duo and African queer liberation movement with a focus on sexual fluidity and non-conforming or “othered” masculine identities, and the aim to create a visible and safe space for young Black queer voices. Give them a search and you’ll find literally tons on them, ranging from great interviews, academic articles, fashion week appearances, and even a documentary.[1] In their musical output, the duo mixed gqom (South African dance/house) with other genres such as Afropop, traditional African music, and gospel, and had lyrics primarily in Zulu. (Side [but maybe not so side] note from a Fever Ray-obsessed fan: In 2019, FAKA contributed to the Plunge Remix album with their remix of the title track, adding in vocals to what was originally an instrumental song, and in Zulu at that.)
For his solo project, Desire Marea somewhat continues on the sonic work of FAKA (particularly the gorgeous feel of that Fever Ray remix that centers on Marea’s captivating falsetto [indeed, I wonder if that remix was something of a key jumping-off point for Marea’s solo work…]) with gqom and other dance subgenres as a base and some lyrics in Zulu. But here, the more personal and experimental road Marea takes results in tracks much more suited for close listens via quality headphones or gorgeous concert halls as opposed to blaring in a club or fashion show – and to spectacular effect! As you might’ve gathered from my use of “is/was” above, it seems that FAKA has since ended or is at least on hiatus, but Marea has continued with his solo work, in music and beyond. If you like what you hear here, make sure you check out his 2nd (and, perhaps, even more incredible) LP On the Romance of Being and EP The Baddies of Isandlwana (both released in 2023), and keep an eye out for what he does next.
E.g., The Quietus 2018 interview titled “No Cunty For Old Men“; and “Siyakaka Feminism: African Anality and the Politics of Deviance in FAKA’s Performance Art Praxis” by Jordache A. Ellapen, in a special “Black Feminist Thought” issue of the journal Feminist Studies (vol. 47, no. 1, 2021, pp. 114-46). ↩︎
#artRock #avantPop #avantgarde #dance #DesireMarea #electronic #experimental #SouthAfrica #SouthAfricanMusic
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