Self-Titled Summer | A Tribe Called Red (2012, Cayuga First Nation/Mohawk/Nipissing First Nation)
Welcome back, all! Hope you listened to some great music while I took a break for a few weeks.
We’re going to keep it simple at 1001 Other Albums headquarters for the next few months, so I’ve decided to begin a new spotlight series that will stretch the entirety of the upcoming summer season (well, the upcoming season for where I’m geographically located, sorry Southern Hemisphere friends). As you might guess from the title of this post, the “Self-Titled Summer” (or, the alternate name for those of us who like thumbing through a thesaurus: “Eponymous Estivation”) series will take a look at albums in The List that are self-titled. We’ve already looked at a few of them but still have about 50 left, so we’re going to fit in as many as we can before we hit the fall equinox. That said, we’re also starting a couple weeks prior to summer solstice, so there are no real rules, yolo, etc. etc.
Anyway, for each spotlight in this series, I’m going to try to keep it basic. Self-titleds are typically debut albums, so they’re often the sonic record of a band/musician finding their sound – or a newly solo musician looking to forge their own path -, making many of these albums springboards into discography deep dives. So rather than attempting to address the entire context of the album in the write-up, I’ll just point out some brief(ish) facts and let you, reader, dig further if said facts strike your fancy.
And so, as we’ll be doing this in alphabetical fashion, first up in our Self-Titled Summer is number 1014 on The List, submitted by myself (buffyleigh).
- Point(s) of origin: Formed in 2007, this is A Tribe Called Red’s first studio album. Band members on this release are Bear Witness (of the Cayuga First Nation), DJ NDN (of the Nipissing First Nation), and DJ Shub (Mohawk, of the Six Nations of the Grand River). In 2021, the band will change their name to The Halluci Nation.
- Tasting notes: Their unique sound is labelled “powwow-step” (or, “electric powwow”), a mix of dubstep, electro, dancehall, reggae, First Nations music (esp. vocals, drumming), and (as may be guessed from the play on ‘A Tribe Called Quest’ in the original name) hip hop.
- Standout track: While not really representative of the rest of the album, “Woodcarver” is a harrowing track, featuring soundbites around the 2010 police shooting of Indigenous woodcarver John T. Williams in Seattle.[1]
- Where are they now?: The band is now a duo of Bear Witness and Tim “2oolman” Hill (Mohawk, of the Six Nations of the Grand River), based out of Ottawa. They’re currently in the middle of a short US tour – June 6 in Portland, ME, June 7 in Burlington, VT, then Seattle and Portland in July.
- Websites: Band website, Wikipedia
Happy listening!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_John_T._Williams ↩︎#ATribeCalledRed #dancehall #dubstep #electricPowwow #electronicMusic #FirstNations #IndigenousMusic #music #musicDiscovery #powwowStep #selftitled #TheHalluciNation
Victoria Stuart 🇨🇦 🏳️⚧️
DoomsdaysCW
1001 Other Albums
1001 Other Albums
100D
