Earlier, I got a text from a random number that my phone marked as “wizard.” It said: “Hey come on down and bring a pot. I’m mixing up stuff you like!” And so on down I came. Into a darkened room I trundled, and there’s this fellah: tall, skinny, sorta ragged, pointy hat up on the old dome covered in stars. He says to me, “Your pot! Great!” and he yanks it from me and sets to work. Me, I’m just standing there wondering how he got my number.
First things first: he rifles through his sordid little shelf, pulls out a box labelled “Halcyon Veil,” and boy howdy does my mouth water. Halcyon Veil? That’s Rabit’s label, the young winner who dropped the likes of Les Fleurs du Mal and Fantasii by Mhysa just last year. The wizard sees me starting to shiver in anticipation and says, “Have a seat, please, my shimmering guest. I’ve only just set to sauté my mixrepoix.” So I sit and I smell the onions. I watch him reach for another box labelled Don Giovanni. You mean one of TMT’s favorite labels of 2017? This is gonna be delicious.
I see him reach for two more big ol’ rectangular objects, both block-letter-bedecked, one saying Haram, the other Moor Mother. Could this be? “Forgive the imagistic license, my little guest, but yes, I’m mixing you up a collaborative release from Moor Mother and Haram under the name 700 Bliss that’s dropping thanks to the collaborative powers of Don Giovanni and Halcyon Veil.” Immediately, I’m beset with questions, but he raises a hand to stop me. Like a dream, the answers come to me in smells, because now this whole thing’s switched from a magic metaphor to a cooking one.
Haram and Moor Mother both cut their teeth on the Philadelphia music scene, grinding out their own precious blends of noise, hip-hop, club music, and on and on. Haram you could hear last year all around you, but zeroing in on the massive Club Chai Vol. 1 compilation. Moor Mother buzzed up forthright on 2016’s noise/hip-hop monsterpiece Fetish Bones. 700 Bliss is where these two long-time friends find their Venn diagrams crossing. A collaboration that’s been extant since 2014, these “anxious rhythms of layered sounds” have been held close to the Philadelphia vest until now, when some kinda wizard feller helped convey the message that they’ve got an EP in the most roundabout way. It’s called Spa 700, and it dropped minutes ago.
You can collect Spa 700 for yourself right here or via Bandcamp below. I’ll just be here, hanging out with this quasi-chef/quasi-wizard I just met, enjoying the scene.
Spa 700 tracklist:
01. basic
02. cosmic slop
03. ring the alarm
04. living
05. scully
More about: DJ Haram, Moor Mother
