Sudan Archives
Sur THE BPM, Sudan Archives – de son vrai nom Brittney Parks – incarne l’idée que suivre sa propre muse est la voie la plus sûre vers l’épanouissement artistique et personnel. Si ses deux derniers albums étaient tournés vers le passé – elle était à la fois déesse et muse sur Athena en 2019, et a écrit un conte punky sur le passage à l’âge adulte pour Natural Brown Prom Queen en 2022 – THE BPM imagine un avenir éblouissant et chromé dans lequel nous sommes toutes et tous à l’écoute de notre propre sens du rythme.
Comme elle le chante sur le titre et thèse de l’album : « Le BPM est le pouvoir ».THE BPM explore les thèmes de la maladie mentale, de l’amour de soi, de la technologie, de la romance et du chagrin d’amour, tout en embrassant une énergie rauque et festive. Il présente également une Sudan plus claire – une productrice exécutive et une artiste qui se déplace avec grâce et confiance à travers son disque le plus amusant et le plus libre à ce jour.
English
On THE BPM, Sudan Archives – real name Brittney Parks – embodies the idea that following your own muse is the surest route to artistic and personal fulfilment. If her last two albums looked to the past – she was both goddess and muse on 2019’s Athena, and wrote a punky coming-of-age tale for 2022’s Natural Brown Prom Queen – THE BPM imagines a dazzling, chrome-plated future in which we’re all tapped into our own sense of rhythm. As she sings on the album’s title track and thesis: “The BPM is the power.”
THE BPM looks to Sudan’s mother’s roots in Michigan and her father’s in Illinois; it was partially completed in Chicago and Detroit, embracing the club sounds from those cities while taking in everything from Jersey club to contemporary global dance musics and experimental beatwork. The whole record is a family affair: Parks enlisted her sister, a cousin from Detroit and one of her best friends to assist, and exclusively worked with people she knew intimately for the first time, rather than bringing in producers from outside the fold.
On THE BPM she introduces a new persona: Gadget Girl, a technologically advanced musician who’s exalted by her embrace of technology. “I was never the girl in a band in high school – I could only express myself for the first time when I got my first iPad and started making beats on it, and when I got my first electric violin. I’m all gadget girled out now, but I’ve never felt so free as a human,” she says.
THE BPM explores themes of mental illness, self-love, technology, romance and heartbreak even as it embraces a raucous, party-starting energy. It also introduces a more clarified Sudan – an executive producer and artist moving with grace and gonzo confidence through her most fun, freewheeling record yet.