Childish Gambino nearly broke the internet in 2016 with the release of Awaken, My Love!, an album of affectionately crafted retro funk and soul that borrowed liberally from the stylistic heyday of the 1970s. The album, while actually quite good from a writing and performance standpoint and certainly deserving of its accolades, was ultimately pretty by-the-numbers and didn’t do too much to expand beyond the boundaries of thoroughly charted territory. The end result was a collection of songs that felt immediately familiar and comfortably situated Awaken, My Love! as a sort of almost-classic that stands proudly on the shoulders of giants.
Where Childish Gambino played it safe, the door was left open for other artists to more easily push the compositions into exciting new directions, tapping into the songs’ inherent potential by infusing different ideas and more radical approaches to the established sturdy framework. Stolen Nova seized the opportunity to make their unmistakable mark on the already stand-out track “Redbone,” preserving much of the original’s molasses groove but injecting a dangerous atmosphere of illicit sensuality into an already provocative affair.
Stolen Nova transforms “Redbone” into a deliriously filthy slow burner that writhes and grinds like a private lap dance in the back booth, sinfully tactile and coated in a lascivious layer of fuzzed out riffs and kaleidoscopic psychedelia. Whip-tight percussion punctuates in lock-step with a swaggering bassline as soft-focus synths swing in slow orbit like fragments of light refracted through smoke from a disco ball hovering just beyond the fringes of a chemically augmented haze.
Slowly building toward the conclusion, Stolen Nova ends “Redbone” with an absolutely massive solo that rips as hard as anything Eddie Hazel laid down for Funkadelic, erupting into an soaring climax absolutely saturated in emotive feedback. It’s a cathartic release that leaves in its wake a sense of uneasy calm, warily slipping into a deep and catatonic slumber.
Katya Ganfeld directs a thrillingly subversive accompanying video that channels Stolen Nova’s dangerous energy into a technicolor noir slasher that’s as seedy as it is sexy. Drenched in the glowing brume of analog film, the mind of a quarantined Casanova unravels within the confines of a deteriorating motel room across a series of conceptual vignettes that culminate in a bloody funeral for the ego, buried under a torrent of roses tossed from an army of invisible admirers.
For an artist bound to the stage, the video encapsulates the pandemic years spent forcibly sequestered away from the very motivator that drives one’s existence, the passion to perform. Alone with one’s thoughts, reality begins to splinter as navigating an endless liminal space proves to be infinitely taxing, mentally bleeding out from the countless tiny lacerations inflicted by an imaginary crown of rose thorns. But through perseverance and sheer force of will a resurrection is possible, leaving only tattoos and scars as a reminder of the necessary martyrdom of the former psyche.
Stolen Nova’s debut LP is due out later this year. Stream “Redbone” on Spotify and follow on Instagram for the latest.
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