Moor Mother releases stirring Forever Industries songs through Sub Pop Singles Club

Philadelphia poet and sound artist Moor Mother shared her latest works today via the Sub Pop Records Singles Club. The semi-regular series has featured music by Y La Bamba and Guerilla Toss already this year, and Moor Mother’s two part piece Forever Industries is available digitally as well as on vinyl.

The project features production collaborators Olof Melander on the A-side and Mental Jewelry, Moor Mother’s bandmate in Moor Jewelry, on the B-side; lyrics circle around imagery of dreaming, fear, and taking control of one’s own destiny.

On the A-side, ripples of synthesizer, glitchy percussive sounds, and whispered voices give way to jazzy acoustic kit beat and a commanding poem rapped by Moor Mother. The verse “I never had much, but I bought me a laptop microphone / now I roam around the world time zone to time zone / but still the clock don’t tick, we are frozen in time” finds Moor Mother delivering one of her most direct, literal reflections — a personal artistic journey — while also abstractly confronting the stagnant, repressive world on the outside.

On the B-side, the atmosphere is more meditative and ambient, a wash of distant piano reverberations reminiscent of Erik Satie’s famed Gymnopédies with echoing, pitch-shifted voices abstractly murmuring sentiments both hopeful (“my future is making space for me”) and heart-stopping (“I am wondering how to wake up”).

Listen below, and order the Forever Industries single in vinyl or digital formats at Bandcamp.

(h/t Pitchfork)