Hooke's Law

衝撃的デビュー作『Forever, Ya Girl』でシーンの最重要アーティストに位置付けられたkeiyaA
ジャズ、R&B、ヒップホップ、エレクトロニック、実験音楽を横断する待望のセカンド・アルバム『Hooke's Law』をリリース!

シカゴ出身、現在はNYを拠点に活動するシンガーソングライター/マルチ・インストゥルメンタリスト/プロデューサーの keiyaA が、待望のセカンド・アルバム『Hooke's Law』を〈XL Recordings〉からリリースする。
2020年の衝撃的デビュー作『 Forever, Ya Girl』はPitchforkで"Best New Music"を獲得し、The New York Times、NPR、Rolling Stone、The Guardianなど多くのメディアで年間ベストに選出。Solange、Jay-Z、Earl Sweatshirt、Blood Orange、Moses Sumneyといったアーティストからも賞賛を受け、彼女をシーンの最重要アーティストのひとりとして強烈に印象づけた。以来、 Tiny Deskでのパフォーマンスや、TelfarやNikeとのコラボレーションなど、多方面での活動を展開。今年初頭には実験的な舞台作品 milk thot を発表し、音楽・詩・演劇・振付を融合した複合的な表現でさらなる進化を示している。

このアルバムは"自己愛の旅"について描いたもの。ただし、ポジティブなアファメーションや資本主義的なセルフケアとは違う角度からの視点。物語のように単純な起承転結や教訓があるわけではなく、むしろサイクルやスパイラルのようなもの。これが "Hooke's Law(フックの法則)" なの。
私は怒りや葛藤、失望や不満といった感情を見つめ、それを受け入れたい。黒人女性に押し付けられてきた従順さや伝統的な役割を拒絶しながら、欲望や渇望、回避的な傾向や自己との永遠の関係性について語っている。
ー keiyaA

制作に5年をかけた本作は、自己探求を通じたサバイバルの記録である。クィアでブラックの女性として直面してきた矛盾をあえて受け入れ、安易な解決を求める風潮を拒み、多様性や多面性を尊重する彼女の姿勢は、ジャズ、R&B、ヒップホップ、エレクトロニック、実験音楽までを横断しながらサウンドに落とし込まれている。

Startled and depleted by the acclaim and transcontinental touring brought by Forever, Ya Girl, Keiyaa also dealt with returning depression symptoms as she felt the pressure of making a follow-up to her 2020 debut. The musician additionally had yet to recover from the toxicity and trauma of a past relationship and a concurrent period in which she struggled to pay the bills. After a phase of artistic inertia, she conceived a play, Milk Thot, and at the same time worked on music for her second album, some of which was featured in her stage production. While Keiyaa takes stock of her newfound circumstances on Hookes Law, she continues railing against the ills of capitalism, writing openly about her struggles with mental health ("Still I claim the pain"), and yearning for physical and emotional intimacy without losing her sense of self. Shes still creating avant-R&B infused with jazz, hip-hop, and experimental electronic music suited for both movement and brown study, but shes no longer concerned with impressing her inspirations, rendering this set even more unique. Its a pileup of ideas that somehow never resembles a mess. "I H8 U," an open letter to a landlord, is prickly, blown-out electro-pop with Keiyaa in her deceptively blithe head voice: "The whole system is a scam/The poor suffering is the plan." Not quite reggaeton, not quite tribal house, "Break It" is stress relief through capering drums and a self-harmonizing Keiyaa in calm if confrontational mode. Songs about lust are no less urgent or fascinating. "Take It" begins with a roiling jazz trio foundation and pivots to hard machine funk after Keiyaa urges to "Take it and shove it in your face." "Think About It/What U Think?" is mostly a trap-styled slow jam slathered in Auto-Tune and flute trills, and Keiyaa is all loved up, seeming to wink as she repeatedly asks, "Like...what you think?," then switching topic ever so slyly: "Like...what you think about the fact that the world as we know it was shaped by hate and conquer and murder overflowing?" Interjections placed throughout the album are alternately curatorial and whimsical, from shattering glass and explosions to the words of key Black writers/activists Pat Parker and Amiri Baraka and...a voice from a sample pack of DJ effects. Whereas Forever, Ya Girl involved a handful of production assists from DJs Cowriiie and Blackpower (aka Mike), Hookes Law is individualistic to the extent that its a one-woman effort. The only other writer credited here is Percy Faith, the "hi-fi strings to relax to" O.G. whose idyllic work is sampled and sharply juxtaposed with the dread Keiyaa conveys on "Stupid Prizes": "So, how Im supposed to thrive when all I know is to survive, and all I know is to rely on I?" On an artistic level, at least, she is flourishing. ~ Andy Kellman