Solpara - Melancholy Sabotage

Other People

£27.52

Format: LP
Catalogue No.: OP070
Barcode: 4251804144377
Release Date: 28 Jun 2024
Genre: Ambient/Post-Punk/Trip-Hop

The new album from Lebanese-American musician Solpara, Melancholy Sabotage, marks his full length debut and return to Nicolas Jaar’s Other People label.

Solpara fuses elements of post-punk, ambient, house, and dub techno. While plenty of his cuts would fit within the context of an energizing DJ set, many are arrhythmic and avant-garde. When asked about his influences, Solpara cites artists ranging from Laurel Halo to Laurie Spiegel to Massive Attack to Denis Mpunga to Lily Tchiumba.

His eclectic tastes were nurtured while studying film and philosophy in college, with German expressionism, Tarkovsky, and Chris Marker's La Jetee allowing him to realize the atmosphere he had been searching for. This curiosity was further encouraged by Booma Collective members and his roommate Jurg Haller, who went on to found the label Forbidden Planet Records. Later, after Solpara returned to his New York City hometown, he worked as a buyer for the now-shuttered record store Halcyon. In that job, he listened to copious amounts of music every day. His deep knowledge of culture has had a strong impact on a sound that is simultaneously fluid and commanding.

While it was recorded over Covid lockdowns, Jaar had been talking about wanting to back a Solpara full-length since he put out Swing. The album came to life while Solpara was living alone in a Brooklyn loft, collecting unemployment checks and viewing ample free time as the artist residency he’d dreamed of; he’d previously been forced to make music in odd windows between numerous jobs and the unmerciful pace of city life. Free from obligations, he would wake up early to take Arabic lessons online, read Tracey Thorn’s autobiography, and skateboard the deserted streets, then come home and design sounds until he had a track that felt like it needed to be released. While this easy going lifestyle was peaceful in many ways, Solpara found more complex inspiration in the emotion that stemmed from participation in Black Lives Matter protests and the 2020 Beirut Port explosion, which rocked all of his extended family members in Lebanon.

Tracklist:
1 - Time To Hold Better 2 - This Time Last Year 3 - We Keep Us Safe 4 - Melancholy Sabotage 5 – Measures 6 - We Don't Owe 7 - Breaking Points 8 – Eviction