Yeah, seasonal darkness and cold might be compelling introversion right about now; but just because books are increasingly preferable to braving sub-freezing tips and meeting your friends at the local Cheesecake Factory, that doesn’t mean that the notion of community suddenly becomes null and void.
Community exists for everybody, as Colin Self would readily acknowledge, and a perpetual theme of the artist and choreographer’s work has been his insistence that community exists specifically for those who get classified as isolated weirdos by a closed-minded society at large. I don’t need to explain the self-perpetuation catalyzed by a dynamic like that, and Self’s full-length albums Elation and Siblings both indulged stories that sought to break the mold of what people typically consider their family. Just imagine Friendsgiving in the context of marginalized groups and individuals. Nobody’s excluded from mashed potatoes.
Orphans, out NOW on RVNG Intl., is the arguable prequel to Siblings. The album includes three tracks that were “composed and recorded” around the time that Siblings became manifest, and the fourth track is a Planningtorock remix of the track “Survival,” which originally appeared on Siblings as a stringed statement of solidarity. Orphans overall seems to continue the intriguing vacillation between Self’s soulful singing and rhythms reflective of his Berlin surroundings.
Check the video for the track “Dispossessed” below. And here’s another place where you can buy, in case you want to pick up an extra copy for someone special in your tribe.
Orphans tracklisting:
01. Dispossessed
02. Once More
03. Polyvagal
04. Survival (Planningtorock Remix)
More about: Colin Self
