Music
L.A. Salami is a truly remarkable figure. A polymath whose work spans genres, his truthful touch lends empathetic emotion to his every utterance.
New album ‘Ottoline’ is out now, a broad-ranging release, thrilling in its scope. Released on the always-worth-seeking-out Sunday Best Recordings, L.A. Salami blends a societal sweep with personal insight, all brought together with some gilded songwriting.
Fresh from touring alongside Morcheeba and Lianne La Havas, his recent COLORS session is absolutely superb.
Chatting to Clash, L.A. Salami went deep on his extraordinary new record.
‘DTMM’
‘Desperate Times, Mediocre Measures’ is a song that tackles the idea of the cyclical and corrosive nature of power structures across our societies – Hierarchical Structures that, like all structures in our reality, are made up of, and reinforced by people who find themselves, more often than not, enforcing the very corrupted elements of those structures, sometimes purely due to the fact that this can become the prime method of propping themselves up within that structure. How can one separate the agendas of massive faceless corporations from politics when the politicians need donations from those corporations to get ahead on a ballot?; to be able to afford to advertise themselves to the masses?; to be able to rent a tour bus?; to get in the position of power in the first place?
If the public servants rely so heavily on these corporations, then their agendas will inevitably become intertwined, and prioritised over the agendas of the public they are supposed to be serving, however good the initial intentions are of those who aspire to take office. This is the natural corrosion of any structure that has been around for a while, whether built with steel, or ideals, eventually, it will need to be tended to before it collapses on top of whomever it plans on sheltering.
I find this to be true of things even down to the mind of a human individual – Every so often render repair work must be done to keep a structure strong. The song makes reference to that in a roundabout way, but don’t feel obliged to concentrate on the words. In an era where an all-encompassing God has lost its power to influence over the pervasive wants and needs of the individual, we find ourselves, ironically, in a time of diety-like absolutes that have just as much power to destroy the collective ideals that allowed for these progressive structures, destined to corrode, to even be built in the first place. You can’t just smash it down and start over again; that, in practical terms, is equivalent to war and chaos. It’s an important time for individuals to recognise the gods within themselves, to overcome the instinct to destroy out of fear, and instead build out of love; Something in our nature that can take the most trying times to learn how to excavate.
These times are desperate. Hate is mediocre. Violence is mediocre. Absolutes are mediocre. The song is out now. It is from an upcoming album called “Ottoline” Give it a listen if it pleases thee.
‘THE FULL FORM’ is a song is about allowing onesself to be a contented fully formed, imperfect being.
‘IS THIS HELL PT1’
‘Is This Hell Pt 1’ – Is a stream of consciousness pondering of sorts. We have the ability to make Hell or Heaven of the reality we are presented with. Collectively we may be currently making a pig’s ear of a good thing. This is perhaps asking the question out loud.
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‘THE SYSTEMIC PANDEMIC’
Some time not too long ago, I came across an abyss… I looked upon it in anguish, painfully uninspired by the view. I didn’t like it. It made me uncomfortable, and the sight of it amounted to nothing… Nothing but the absence of love in all things… The absence of attraction, the seed of love. The dispersion of any gravity. The absence of all matter and purpose…
Truth say, It was all rather boring…
I perish the thought of returning there even to revisit in memory… So I’ll do now what I did then; I avert my gaze – Redact my time spent in shadow – Allow a light some chance at forcing the darkest regions to abate. Light is life is love, and life is complicated; this song, The SYSTEMIC PANDEMIC, is a song about life, and how complicated it can become even in the midst of love. And the images are about how simple loving life can be when you let some light in.
To be conscious – to have the light of the universe within you – to be ALIVE – is to experience a dimension of truth – a perspective of existence; to breathe in and out – to have ups and downs – to do wrong and right – to master evil for the sake of good. One might say that these are the building blocks of the structures that inevitably take shape throughout time well spent in the thralls of consciousness; that become the worn-out paths we find ourselves treading through in order to reach the other side of life -the systems by which we abide until they wear at the seams. A dead end is bound to be met in the process of navigating the mystery of being. This song is about the various tools of human consciousness that can be used to cultivate the love which we need to survive after gazing for too long into an abyss… and the source of its power.
‘PEACE IS FINE’ and ‘PEACE OF MIND’ are two sides of the same coin. Both are about the reconciliation of life and love with the inevitability of conflict, and ultimately the acceptance of the imperfections in both.
‘MINUS HIS WOMAN’
What is a man without a woman? What good is the life of a man without love? This song explores that.
‘LADY WINTER’
A classic age-old tale of a failed romance.
‘AS BEFORE’
After all is said and done and love has failed you, what is one left with to learn from?
‘IN HONOUR OF THE STREET LIGHTS’
The cost of love is vulnerability, but without love, how can one light the often dark path life can lead one along? This song is sung in honour of those lights that often have a tendency to burn.
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‘Ottoline’ is out now.
