Africa Is a Country

The Music of Bell Atlas

The Music of Bell Atlas

By
Sean Jacobs

One of my current favorite bands–haven’t seen them play live yet; they’re out West–is Bell Atlas. That the lead singer Sandra Lawson is a distant relative of late Nigerian legend Rex Lawson (he is a distant cousin of her mother) and of another highlife legend, Erasmus Jenewari, may be part of it. But Sandra’s talent speaks for itself. The other band members are Derek Barber, Geneva Harrison and Doug Stuart. Things are moving fast for them. They’ve been releasing new songs online for a bit now and have a new album coming out on Bandcamp on March 11. Meanwhile, here’s a sample of their sound, self-described as an “Afro-Indie-Soul sound … incorporating an eclectic range of influences including Highlife, Hip-Hop, Samba, R&B, Post Rock, and Indie Pop”:

Another video:

And a soundcloud of their latest, and second, single from their debut EP, “Loving You Down.” It’s about “the weight of attachment that is involved in a relationship. It’s about a woman near the end of her life, revisiting some painful memories and deciding to re-craft the telling of her life story”:

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/79397145″ params=”color=ff6600&auto_play=false&show_artwork=true” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

* Photo Credit: Bells Atlas

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Coming home

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Imaginary homelands

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Business as usual?

This month, Algeria quietly held its second election since Abdelaziz Bouteflika was ousted in 2019. On the podcast, we ask what Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s second term means for the country.