Venera, a newly formed experimental electronic outfit featuring James Shaffer (Korn) and Atlanta-based composer/filmmaker, Chris Hunt, release their self-titled, debut album on Oct. 13 via Ipecac Recordings.
Venera enigmatically launched their debut song “Swarm” (https://venera.lnk.to/swarm) late last month. No information, no pre-sale, simply the three-minute single released in tandem with a mysterious screed and a pulsating black-and-white video directed by EFFIXX.
Today, the pair step out from the shadows, revealing who and what Venera is, as well as releasing their first single, and video, for the track “Hologram” (https://venera.lnk.to/hologram). A song that features guest vocals/piano from Rizz of VOWWS.
In a joint statement from Shaffer and Hunt, they explain: “’Hologram’ emerged quickly from our first session together. A nearly unchanging drum machine pattern nested in warbling guitars. We don’t interact much with holograms but they seem to offer an image of an alluring emptiness and light, which resonates well with the universe we are driven to explore.”
Several guests join Hunt and Shaffer on Venera. Drummer Deantoni Parks (Mars Volta, John Cale) plays on “Erosion” and “Disintegration,” HEALTH’s Jacob Duzsik contributes vocals on “Ochre” and Alain Johannes lends his voice to “Triangle.” The album was self-produced.
Album pre-orders (https://venera.lnk.to/venera) are available now, with Venera available digitally, as well as physically on CD, and an assortment of vinyl, including limited-edition red, snowy white and skull gold variants.
Swedish psychedelic band Melody Fields returned with their latest single ‘Hallelujah,’ on 18th August 2023. Additionally, they have announced two albums 1901 and 1991 that are both set to arrive later this year via Coop Records and Nudie Records.
Merging velvety synths, bouncy house piano, pounding bass lines, and funky bongo drum beats, ‘Hallelujah’ stands out as an infectious neo-psychedelic dance anthem. The band’s hazy, hypnotic vocals adds a shoegaze touch, creating a refreshing twist to the psychedelic genre.
Melody Fields said of the single, “Drawing inspiration from iconic bands like Primal Scream and Happy Mondays, the track transports you to the glory days of early 90s dance-oriented rock. ‘Hallelujah’ is a tantalizing preview from the upcoming album 1991, set for release on Coop Records (EU) and Nudie Records (US). Get ready to surrender to the irresistible allure of Melody Fields’ sonic ecstasy and let ‘Hallelujah’ ignite your dancing spirit.”
Melody Fields’ forthcoming albums 1901 and 1991 are a testament to their exploration of the neo-psychedelic realm. 1901 will arrive on 13th October 2023, with 1991 dropping on 10th November 2023. Building upon their signature sound, they will delve deeper into the realms of sonic experimentation, incorporating elements of electronic psychedelia and atmospheric soundscapes. The result is a mesmerizing fusion of vintage and contemporary influences, where retro-inspired melodies collide with innovative production techniques.
Hailing from the vibrant musical enclave of Gothenburg, Sweden, Melody Fields is a band that seamlessly weaves elements of modern psychedelia, indie rock, and shoegaze into their captivating sonic tapestry. With a sound that pays homage to the pioneers of the psychedelic rock movement while forging a distinct path of their own, they have become a force to be reckoned with within the psychedelic music scene. Drawing inspiration from influential bands such as Spiritualized, Moon Duo, and La Düsseldorf, Melody Fields create a sonic landscape that balances vintage psychedelic nostalgia with a fresh and modern approach. Their enchanting harmonies, swirling guitars, and ethereal textures immerse listeners in a kaleidoscopic world of sound, where the boundaries between reality and dreams blur.
As Melody Fields carve their path within the global psychedelic scene, Melody Fields has garnered attention and acclaim for their innovative sound and captivating live performances. Melody Fields’ newest single will be released on 18th August 2023, and their two upcoming albums 1901 and 1991 will be delivered later this year.
Following the band’s second studio Album Shape / Shifting [Dedstrange Records 2022] comes their unforgiving 3rd album Net Prophet, releasing on Dedstrange September 8th 2023.
“Neural transmissions of crisis on the eve of WEB 3.0”
The band states, “Best Western stumbles into the saloon we call ‘late capitalism’ and points its drunken finger at the ‘virtues’ of progress. Imagine line-dancing to the gun club at McDonalds with a thin deranged guitar creeping into your conscience.”
Net Prophet finds the band moving deeper into the vaporous territory of 21st-century excess, where power casually corrupts even more absolutely and the mental netscape is more deranged in the membrane than we ever knew possible. A world on the edge, where imminent ecocide and violent social upheaval lurk beneath every minute mental distraction. The doomscroll gets longer and the attention span shorter as a disconnected global internet life takes over with its scepters of promise and looming evasiveness.
The sound is rich in variety from the darkwave pulsing synths of “Lichtenberg Monologue” reminiscent of Shape / Shifting’s “Tomahawk” to the growling, slow-driving bass of “A New Dawn” which harks back to the band’s S/T 1st record, albeit with a synth instead of guitar. Even with the stark contrasts of murder-punk “AR-15” and jangle-pop “Purgatory Mall” the record never strays from the prime colors of the band: Vox, Drums, Bass, Guitar, Synth.
Recorded live in the Berlin studio Monoton, the record demonstrates the band in its prime – tightened up and influenced by their extensive touring, who have honed their sound from simple elements into a rich wall of noise.
Net Prophet will be released on September 8th, 2023 through Dedstrange Records.
“We didn’t have to go far to find the garish and incessant symbols of late capitalism, towering above our Berlin doorstep: The near-complete Amazon Tower, the East Side Mall, the luxury lofts lining the Spree. To complete the puzzle we cast the perfect urban cowboy: Loz, the frontman and mastermind of Dedstrange band The Pleasure Majenta. He performs a day in the life, waking up at sunset and sliding down the grimey alleys of Berlin, confined to the walls of this rising city skyline. Meanwhile Plattenbau perform the song on TV, broadcast from The East Side Mall. Who is well-adjusted? What is deranged? In the context, the Krishnamurti quote repeated throughout the song rings more true than ever: “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society”.
Keep your mind open.
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Today we’re excited to introduce you to new Manchester-based band Duvet who are set to release a split 7″ ‘Girlcow / Sweaty Dog’ on October 6th via Fear of Missing Out Records. Today the band are sharing the first single “Girlcow“. Duvet’s jagged post-punk tales conjure sleazy cowboys, bone-dry badlands, and grotty indie discos in northern England.
Speaking about new single, the band said ‘“‘Girlcow’ is a song that includes a bit of fictional story telling about a confident cowboy pursuing a play girl bunny type character. The lyrics are a bit scattered, stream of conscious and all over the place, with the verse and chorus switching from the two perspectives. Given that, it only felt natural to write something that’s quite erratic to go with the words. It’s a very up and down song and that was kind of our intent, to put together something that’s slightly nauseating but still catchy.”
Self-released earlier this year, previously single “Rodeo” takes these markers and gallops full steam ahead, kicking up a dust storm of dissonance and teflon-tough drumming fortified by howls from lead singer Grace Walkden. The song lays into armchair activists who “jump on the rodeo” and “complain about topics they never actually act on”, according to the band.
First forming in 2022, Duvet dipped their toes in dream-pop and riot grrrl before landing on the driving basslines of post-punk. The band’s debut offering “Clown Clown Clown” cuts a hard-hitting figure of scabrous riot grrrl energy in thrall to the 1990s. Duvet assembled their current lineup of vocalist Grace Walkden, guitarists Tasmin Stephens and Seth Lloyd, bassist Jimmi Brown and drummer Victoria Melling and settled on a post-punk sound indebted to the genre’s new wave of artists like Shame, Warmduchser, and Viagra Boys.
Released as a split 7” with “Sweaty Dog,” new single “Girlcow” is flecked with specks of noisy grunge and was written from the perspective of “a pervy cowboy”. The haunting track showcases the band’s knack for crafting stories, as they flip the script and hand over the narrative reins to a female protagonist. “We all mutually find cowboys quite funny,” offers Tasmin Stephens. “I think we all live through cowboys – somehow.”
On the flipside, “Sweaty Dog” channels the band’s cider-drenched commitment to having a good time. The propulsive track is “basically just about being really sweaty and dancing”, according to Walkden. Meanwhile, guitarist Seth Lloyd has designs on transforming “Sweaty Dog” into a dance. “There are sweaty dogs inside all of us,” he jokes.
It’s this uninhibited sense of humour that shines through the band’s songwriting and at their riotous live shows with which they have been building their reputation over the past few years. “The reason we tend to write songs more of the fun side of life is because myself and Grace had many conversations at the start about how people only expect us to only talk/sing about harsh topics that affect a lot of women,” explains Stephens. “We tried it, but it didn’t work for us. Maybe in the future it will, but we came to the conclusion that we are here to have fun with the band and escape that side of life.”
“You come to the practice room with a smile on your face because this is meant to be fun, and that’s why we hopefully write songs that we think are fun,” says Lloyd. “We are here to distract from the shit things in life.”
Today NYC based band Lathe of Heaven share their new single “At Moment’s Edge“, which is taken from their upcoming debut album ‘Bound By Naked Skies’ out Sept 1st via Sacred Bones.
When writing “At Moment’s Edge”, Lathe of Heaven initially intended the song to be a one-off, poppy departure from the otherwise depressive and urgent atmosphere of their debut record ‘Bound by Naked Skies’. Once recording the track however, the band found it to contextualise perfectly, the dualistic nature of the record and the band as a whole, proving itself to be a prime candidate for the album’s second single. Laden with dreamy synths and enchanting vocal melodies, “At Moment’s Edge” invokes within the listener a current of visceral elusion, ebbing towards a total re-imagination of any prior notions they may have had about the band.
“Existing in the lyrics are themes of process, change and complexity on a very personal level,” remarks the band’s vocalist Gage Allison, “which we believe is indicative of the recurring themes represented in the album.”
The video accompanying the track was directed by Emma Penrose and Zach Shorrosh, who aptly cultivate the surreal and absurd atmosphere the song was meant to invoke. When asked to comment on the video Penrose stated “Gage reached out to us asking if we wanted to make a music video for Lathe of Heaven and showed us maybe the most thought-out mood board I’ve ever seen, referencing Man Ray, Caravaggio, Marcel Duchamp as well as classic and contemporary science fiction. Inspired by the monochromatic imagery, we shot At Moment’s Edge entirely on 16mm black & white film & print stock and developed it by hand ourselves. We processed the 900’ of film at Mono No Aware using an eco friendly developer consisting of coffee, beer & vitamin C powder. The results turned out exactly as we’d hoped.”
With little more under their belt than a relentless string of live performances, and a twice pressed (subsequently sold out) Self-Titled Demo, NYC based band Lathe of Heaven have proved themselves to be a potent and cohesive element amidst the torrent of hardcore punk and synth-driven pop revival currently proliferating throughout the U.S. underground. Formed in 2021, the band features members of noteworthy Brooklyn based projects such as People’s Temple, Porvenir Oscuro, Pawns, Android, Hustler and more.
Though this roster of past and alternate musical endeavors exposes a diverse range of genre and skill sets, Lathe of Heaven can only be understood as a departure from such influences, exploring a sound entirely of its own.
Now nearly two years later, LoH are finally prepared to unleash their debut Full Length Bound by Naked Skies. With careful consideration, this eleven track LP blends elements of British New-Wave and Finnish Post-Punk into a nuanced juxtaposition of 80s sonic mania. Incorporating themes of classic and contemporary Science-Fiction, Bound by Naked Skies indebts itself as much to its literary influences as it does to the music that informs its unique and deliberate sound. Paying powerful homage to the uncanny worlds of authors Arthur C. Clarke, Octavia Butler, Ken Liu and of course Ursula Le Guin (whose novel the band is named after), themes of cosmology (Ekpyrosis), simulation (Heralds of the Circuit-Born), mental illness (Moon-Driven Sea), and ontology (Entropy, The Spider.), weave implicitly throughout the arch of the record, providing a sense of insight into the minds of those plagued by the ambiguous nature of humankind’s terrifying and not-so-distant future.
Lathe of Heaven tour dates: 18th Aug – Union Pool (w/ Temple of Angels), Brooklyn,, NY (Tickets) 7th Sept – TV Eye (w/ Witness and Eyedrops), Brooklyn, NY (Tickets) 13th Sept – The Dirty Bird (w/ The Poisoning and The Exile), Santa Ana, CA 14th Sept – Knucklehead ( w/ The Exile and Shrouds), Los Angeles, CA 15th Sept – Zebulon (w/ Diode), Los Angeles, CA 16th Sept – Stork Club (w/ Vulture Feather and Vague Lanes), Oakland, CA 17th Sept – Enzyme, San Francisco, CA 18th Sept – Naked Lounge (w/ Vulture Feather and Exposure Therapy), Chico, CA 19th Sept – Coffin Club, Portland, OR 21st Sept – 23rd Sept – Varning Festival, Montreal, MTL (Tickets)
Today, IAN SWEET — the project of songwriter and pop auteur Jilian Medford — announces her new album, SUCKER, out November 3rd on Polyvinyl, and presents lead single/video, “Your Spit.” Perfectly merging Medford’s pop sensibilities with the widescreen indie rock that she first made her name on, SUCKER is both sumptuous and fully realized. Medford’s musical voice has only become more unique amidst an ever-growing field, and SUCKER is proof positive that — even with a considerable discography in her arsenal — Medford is just getting started.
Lead single “Your Spit” swerves and sways with a distinctly pop gait. Produced by Alex Craig (Binki, Claud) and Strange Ranger’sIsaac Eiger, “Your Spit” begins with blown-out synths and Medford’s ever-incisive lyrics. “Why don’t you kiss me like you mean it // Kiss me like you’re leaving//Your spit tastes different,” Medford sings, her voice shapeshifting from nonchalant yearning to a full-blown scream-along chorus. Of “Your Spit,” Medford adds; “‘Your Spit’ is about the joy and fear that surrounds new relationships. The excitement that’s also accompanied by doubt. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say the song is just mostly about making out.”
The accompanying “Your Spit” video — helmed by Insufficent Funds and directed by Brittany Reeber — sees Medford surrounded by a theater full of kissing couples, and features cameos from Saturday Night Live cast members Sarah Sherman (aka Sarah Squirm) and Martin Herlihy. Of the video, Reeber adds: “Jillian and I got together one day and had a complete mind meld on what the videos would be for the first two singles. The concept for ‘Your Spit’ comes straight from the energy of the song. It felt right to get kind of literal and visceral! The couples brought a whole new dimension to the video that I wasn’t even expecting, it’s flirty, but it’s also really tender and sweet. Grateful to all the brave kissers! We also knew we wanted the two videos to speak to each other in some way so there is a nod to the next vid in this one if you can catch it.”
Work on SUCKER began in the fall of 2022; feeling newly untethered in the wake of a “COVID relationship” that had recently come to pass, Medford took a cross-country road trip from her L.A. home to an artist residency at The Outlier Inn. “I was feeling very stuck in L.A. and was trying to get comfortable with spending more time alone again,” she recalls about her hermetic confines, which included 24-hour studio access to create in an unfettered fashion. “I went there not knowing exactly what I wanted to do or make, but I knew I wanted to explore and get out of my comfort zone. I forced myself to make things on the spot, in the moment and not overthink it too much.”
Feeling inspired, Medford brought her demos to life with co-producers Craig and Eiger, along with mixing engineer Al Carlson (St. Vincent, Jessica Pratt), all of whom helped shape SUCKER into its current form —a record that reconciles Medford’s beginnings with where she’s landed at this current moment. “I revisited the reasons why I started playing music to begin with,” she explains. “I wanted to get more personal and showcase a more confident side musically and lyrically.”
SUCKER follows Medford’s 2021 breakthrough and Polyvinyl debut, Show Me How You Disappear, which chronicled her time spent in an intensive outpatient program that included six hours of group therapy a day. “Show Me How You Disappear was written during a really difficult period of my life after reckoning with a mental health crisis,” she explains. “I survived that very moment in my life through writing that record, and the extreme urgency to heal is reflected in the songwriting. With SUCKER, I felt more capable to take my time and experiment without being totally afraid of the outcome. It wasn’t life or death — it was just life, and I was lucky to be living it.”
SUCKER TRACKLIST 1. Bloody Knees 2. Smoking Again 3. Emergency Contact 4. Sucker 5. Comeback 6. Your Spit 7. Clean 8. FIGHT 9. Slowdance 10. Hard
IAN SWEET Tour Dates Fri. Aug. 11 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune Theatre # Sat. Aug. 12 – Denver, CO @ Paramount Theatre # Thu. Aug. 17 – Los Angeles, CA @ Skirball Cultural Center Tue. Aug. 22 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere – Rooftop $ Thu. Nov. 9 – London, UK @ Pitchfork Music Festival London
It was almost 30 years ago when Drop Nineteens disbanded. They had released their shoegaze masterpiece Delaware in 1992, and shared stages with bands like Radiohead, Hole, Blur, PJ Harvey and Smashing Pumpkins. They went from being teenagers in Boston to mid-twenty-somethings with videos on MTV, sessions on the BBC, world tours and numerous festival appearances under their belt. So when Drop Nineteens ceased to be, their lead singer and songwriter Greg Ackell felt content. He had the rest of his life in front of him to figure out what he wanted to do. Music was a closed chapter.
In the decades that followed, despite the band’s turn away from the spotlight, Drop Nineteens’ legacy grew. Delaware came to be considered a classic of the genre, landing on lists of the greatest shoegaze albums of all time, with Pitchfork saying that “Delawareset Drop Nineteens squarely in a league of their own” on their run down of the genre’s best albums. The band’s catalog also found a new life on streaming, where tracks like “Winona” and “Kick The Tragedy” have racked up millions of streams and reached a new audience, becoming a touchstone influence for the new wave of American shoegaze.
It was in this context that in 2021 a friend from the band’s early days got Ackell on the phone to suggest making some music together, just to see how it felt. Instead of shutting it down like he had been doing over the years, he decided to entertain the prospect. For the first time in nearly 30 years, he picked up a guitar with intent.
Today, Drop Nineteens are announcing their official return. The full original line up of Ackell, Steve Zimmerman, Paula Kelley, Motohiro Yasue, and Peter Koeplin has reunited to create a new album entitled Hard Light(out November 3rd on Wharf Cat Records), the band’s 3rd official LP and the spiritual successor to Delaware. To mark the announce the band are sharing the first single from the album, a track called “Scapa Flow”, and Ackell and Kelley have spoken to Stereogum about the band’s history, their unlikely reunion, and their comeback LP.
“The intent on Delaware was to reflect that time in our lives, which I think it did accurately,” says Ackell. “Having considered Delaware before embarking on Hard Light, we wanted to make an honest, reflective album representing who we are now, which is, well, older.
“I’ve been struggling to find an answer to the question ‘why now?’ What was the catalyst for getting back together after so long? The best answer I can come up with is this was the first moment in my life since stopping making music that I got curious to hear what Drop Nineteens might sound like now. And there was only one way to find out!”
In support of the new LP Drop Nineteens are announcing a series of fall tour dates in major US markets with support from Horse Jumper of Love, Greg Mendez and Winter.Full details can be found below.
Drop Nineteens Hard Light is available for preorder HERE
Keep your mind open.
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Suicide Squeezecelebrates Chastity Belt with the latest in its split 7″ single series–a pair of covers by Friends of the Band and tourmates Courtney Barnettand Kurt Vile. For this release, Kurt and Courtney each recorded a song from the band’s third album, 2017’s I Used to Spend So Much Time Alone, in their signature styles. Today, you can listen to Side C for Courtney’s take on “Different Now,”where she pulls the song from its Pacific Northwest haze, leaves it out to dry in the middle of the desert, and wrings something almost joyous from the original’s ambiguity. Side K is Kurt’s version of“This Time of Night,” on which he lovingly recreates the anxious interplay of Julia Shapiro and Lydia Lund’s guitars, stretching each note of the song’s fraught vocal melody to its breaking point. “This Time of Night” / “Different Now” will be available October 27 on vinyl and digital platforms, with a one-time vinyl pressing limited to 1500 (250 pink, 250 black, 1000 blue) copies.
On the track Courtney Barnett offers:“This song is so special to me. I remember when the album came out and I listened to ‘different now’ over and over, I thought they were singing directly to me. It’s a perfect piece of songwriting, I showed it to Kurt and he would always sing it to me on tour. I love Chastity Belt. I’m pretty sure we met in 2014 at a record store in Seattle, then we toured together in 2015 and we’ve been friends ever since. I originally played it as a little folk acoustic version, then I asked Stella [Mozgawa] to program some drums and it turned into something a lot more fun. we tracked straight to the Tascam 388 and it was a real joy to make.”
On his thrilling and immersive debut album, Skeleten (producer / vocalist Russ Fitzgibbon) dares to imagine new ways of being that are not characterised by doom or despair – a challenge in an era defined more by feelings of futility, isolation and precarity. Across eleven tracks of free-flowing, transcendent, and often euphoric electronic music, he plays spiritual guide to a musical journey which is wonderfully in touch with realms beyond our own. Praising the power of comradery and community, dreaming of a future that is joyously boundless, Skeleten’s singular debut LP is, to borrow from one of his own lines, music for dancing “any way your body turns.”
After years of cutting his teeth in Sydney’s tight-knit electronic community, Fitzgibbon forged his own identity and debuted under his solo moniker, Skeleten in 2020. It’s his most personal project to date, the sound of him unfiltered for the first time as both a vocalist and producer. At once intimate and otherworldly, at the core of the project lies a strong sense of uncomplicated openness and a deeply rhythmic, meditative ambience. Strikingly unplaceable, the result is a curious yet alluring amalgam of far-flung influences and emotive atmospheres that invites you to get repeatedly lost in.
In between his debut and the long-awaited release of Under Utopia, Skeleten’s consistent output has seen him accrue rotation and early praise from Triple J, Double J, XLR8R, Stereogum, NME, The Guardian, BBC Radio 6 Music’s Recommends Spotlight Artist, Brooklyn Vegan and receive the official remix treatment from the likes of Logic1000, Moktar and Jennifer Loveless.
Under Utopia sees its release today via 2MR (North America) and Astral People Recordings (ROW) on vinyl and across all digital platforms.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Betty Davisʼ self-titled debut — an electrifying artistic statement that launched one of modern musicʼs most revolutionary figures. To celebrate the visionary singer, songwriter, producer, and fashion iconʼs broadly influential career, acclaimed reissue label Light in the Attic is revisiting four essential titles from The Queen of Funkʼs catalog: Betty Davis (1973), They Say Iʼm Different (1974), Is It Love Or Desire? (recorded in 1976, released in 2009), as well as the first-ever vinyl release of Crashinʼ From Passion, which captures Davisʼ final 1979 sessions. All four tiles were produced in close collaboration with Davis, who sadly passed away in 2022.
Betty Davis, They Say Iʼm Different, and Crashinʼ From Passion were remastered by Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters and pressed on vinyl at Record Technology, Inc. (RTI). For the aforementioned three titles, the accompanying booklets include a treasure trove of rare photos from the era, plus lyrics, and new liner notes by writer, ethnomusicologist, and Davisʼ close friend, Danielle Maggio, who integrates interviews that she conducted with Davis, marking her last-ever interviews. They Say Iʼm Different also includes a fold-out 24×36 poster. Is It Love Or Desire? was remastered by GRAMMY®-nominated engineer John Baldwin and pressed on vinyl at Record Technology, Inc. (RTI). The album includes liner notes from journalist, DJ, and professor Oliver Wang.
Each album will be available on CD, black wax, and in a variety of exclusive color variants. All titles will be released on August 25th. Read below for more information on Davis and the individual albums.
Far ahead of her time, Queen of Funk Betty Davis (1944 – 2022) defied the limits of gender, race, and genre during her all-too-short career. She innovated with her space-age blend of funk, R&B, and blues and enraptured audiences with her raw and powerful vocals – then shocked (and awed) them with her provocative, sexually liberated lyrics. Unapologetic and independent, Davis smashed glass ceilings with gusto. To count a few, she was among the first Black models to grace the covers of Seventeen and Glamour, while later, she became the first Black woman to write, produce, and arrange her own albums.
When Davis released her self-titled debut in 1973, she was already a force in New York, London, and Los Angeles. She had opened one of NYCʼs most vibrant private nightclubs, penned songs for The Chambers Brothers and The Commodores, collaborated with Hugh Masekela, and inspired her then-husband Miles Davis to create the roots for jazz fusion on Bitches Brew. While she received numerous offers from record labels in those early years,
Davis also recognized the power of retaining control over her music. Fiercely DIY, she eventually signed a contract with Woodstock organizer Michael Langʼs Just Sunshine imprint, under which she released Betty Davis (1973) and They Say Iʼm Different (1974). In 1975, she made her major label debut under Island Records with Nasty Gal. Davis would go on to record two more albums—Is It Love Or Desire? and Crashinʼ From Passion—both of which remained unreleased for decades.
Oen relegated to cult figure status and frequently misunderstood, Davisʼ album recording career spanned less than a decade. While her music earned critical acclaim and respect from peers, it was regularly banned or disregarded, due to its sexual nature. As a Black woman in an industry controlled by white men, Davis found herself in a constant battle for creative control, oen to the detriment of her career. Never given the chance to succeed commercially, a disillusioned Davis retired from the spotlight in 1980.
From a modern lens, the path that Davis forged can be traced clearly throughout the decades, traversed by those who pushed the needle farther and fought for equality in the industry. Many of musicʼs brightest stars have counted Davis as an influence, including Prince, Erykah Badu, and Janelle Monae, while rappers like Ice Cube, Method Man, and Talib Kweli have all sampled her work. In recent years, Davis has captured a new generation of fans, thanks to the use of her songs in such series as Mixed-ish, Girlboss, Pistol, and Orange Is the New Black. In 2017, she was the subject of the acclaimed documentary, Betty: They Say I’m Different.
