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Kelela synthesizes contemporary R&B and progressive electronic music with an aptitude for prompting club play as much as bedroom listening. The vocalist and songwriter, born Kelela Mizanekristos in Washington, D.C., was raised in suburban Maryland and didn't have aspirations as a singer until she started studying jazz. Subsequent obsessions with Amel Larrieux and Little Dragon helped push her toward finding her own style -- one she found after she moved to Los Angeles in 2010.

𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚊𝚟𝚊𝚝𝚊𝚛

new avatar is where everything Kelela has been building toward comes into focus. She started writing her first songs in the D.C. indie scene before the club music and electronic production that defined her early career took over. With new avatar, she closes the loop: R&B run through distorted guitar living alongside new intersections in dance music, culminating in a sound that pulls from everywhere she has ever lived musically. - warp

LINKNB:

idea 1:

born in a garage🤘🏾and written while I was reading octavia butler’s 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳, “idea 1” is about what it feels like to exist in this climate — the weight of being expected to witness, absorb, and speak truth at a time when the world feels like it’s unraveling. that’s a particular kind of burden Black women know intimately. this song doesn’t offer answers, it just refuses to look away.

Discography:

In The Blue Light

A Live Performance At The Blue Note

"Nearly a year after her acclaimed RAVE:N, The Remixes, Kelela announces her next project In The Blue Light, a live album capturing a pivotal moment in her career. In May 2024, Kelela shared new arrangements of her work in a series of intimate performances at New York City’s legendary jazz club The Blue Note, creating a one-of-a-kind unplugged experience to sold-out audiences. …
‘In The Blue Light’ is Kelela’s love letter to her musical inspirations and devoted fans." - Bleep

Go Back & Get It: An Interview w/ Kelela

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"Raven is the work of a careful observer, proving the R&B artist is just as poignant over ambient, jungle and dancehall, as she is on her more well-trodden terrain....With Raven, Kelela sought to write a record with Black femmes in mind, hoping that her own experiences of healing, of joy, of anger and of love would resonate with them. "I started this process from the feeling of isolation and alienation I've always had as a Black femme in dance music, despite its Black origins," she explained in the album's press release. "Raven is my first breath taken in the dark, an affirmation of Black femme perspective in the midst of systemic erasure and the sound of our vulnerability turned to power."- resident advisor

RAVE:N, The Remixes (2024)

"In the past, Kelela remixes have traditionally split the difference between full-blown reimaginings and particle-collider deconstructions, with the latter tending to represent the more fun but overall weaker tracks in this category .... RAVE:N, on the other hand, is distinct: Each track deepens the aqueous world of the original record." - pitchfork