DOWNLOAD: Destiny's 'Honeysuckle', A Feminist Disco Soul Album for the Ages

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Destiny drops, Honeysuckle, a hypnotic follow up to her acclaimed debut, Metallic Butterfly.

Blooming with an easy confidence, positivity, and Smart Girl Club feminist swagger, Destiny's Honeysuckle is a taste of all things good in this world.

After catching a couple of sun-soaked previews in the form of the 80s-tinged "Orange Blossom" and the disco-funk of "Soul Train", Honeysuckle finds Taino artist Destiny Fraqueri, aka the former Princess Nokia, luxuriating in her uniquely soulful blend of throwback optimism and hip-hop eclecticism.

Over the album's 12 tracks, Destiny alternately sings, croons, raps, and spins out stories of love and songs of uplift in a time of beautiful struggle.

But it's in the album's latter half that Destiny really comes into her element.

From the downtempo, trip-hop grooves of "Mermaid Girl" and "Cherry Cola", to the acoustic folk of "Wide Brim Hat" and the bluesy pairing of "God Inside of Me" with the righteous, poetic liberation of spoken word album closer, "Brown Girl Blues", Destiny is proof positive that remaining positive in the face of oppression is not just a political necessity—it's a revolutionary act of celebration.

"We can't succumb to the darkness", she says. Time to lean into the light.

STREAM: Destiny's Honeysuckle or download it below.

 

DOWNLOAD: Destiny's Honeysuckle

Destiny Fall Tour Dates 2015:

09.20 - MoMA PS1 - New York City 09.26 - VIA Music Fest - Pittsburgh, PA 10.11 - Webster Music Hall - New York City 10.30 - Wesleyan University - Connecticut 10.31 - The Barbery - Philadelphia, PA 11.12 - Cooper Union Hall - New York City 11.13 - Chop Suey - Seattle, WA

Destiny's New Video for "Orange Blossom" is a Sultry Summer Jam

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Everyone's favourite Smart Girl Club rocker, Destiny, releases a video for her new single, "Orange Blossom".

Hot on the bell-bottomed, 70s disco heels of her previous release, "Soul Train", the reincarnation of the former Princess Nokia—now known simply as Destiny—continues its transformation.

Moving her retro-chic timeline forward into the early 80s, Destiny's latest single, "Orange Blossom", comes wrapped in a lo-fi, VHS aesthetic, filtered through the sunlit haze of late summer excursions.

Set amidst Coney Island's now mostly-quiet rides and arcades, Destiny struts, dances, grooves, and sways to the lilt and swing of the track's digital synths, laid-back electric guitar lines, and grooving handclaps. Lyrically, she pours on the innuendo, dropping "all natural" allusions to getting down in the heat of some sun-soaked summer loving.

"Orange Blossom" rides its soft, 80s-wave influences in less abstract and experimental ways than her Metallic Butterfly-era releases. And although Destiny is rooting this next phase of her creative expression in groove-based music that's gone before, she doesn't let sonic nostalgia define her sound, just cast a warm glow around it.

Kick back and enjoy before the long days of summer are gone.

WATCH: Destiny - "Orange Blossom"

Raven Chacon, Laura Ortman, and the Discotays Perform at One Flaming Arrow Festival

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The One Flaming Arrow Festival of Indigenous art, music, and performance blazes on.

Kicking off last week in Portland, Oregon, the inaugural One Flaming Arrow Festival is bringing an incredible array of contemporary Indigenous art, music, readings, film screenings, panels, performances, and concerts to the Indigenous lands of the Chinook/Multnomah peoples.

The brainchild of Demian DinéYazhi, Kaila Farrell-Smith (both of R.I.S.E.), and Carlee Smith, One Flaming Arrow launched a successful crowdfunding campaign this winter to bring together radical Indigenous voices from across Native america for a 12-day celebration of contemporary Indigenous arts.

The festival features a stellar lineup that includes:

  • Bat Vomit
  • Natalie Ball
  • Dylan Miner
  • Melanie Fey
  • Sky Hopinka
  • Shilo George
  • Jeff Ferguson
  • Laura Ortman
  • The Discotays
  • Brittany Britton
  • Raven Chacon
  • Katrina Benally
  • Amanda Ranth
  • Miranda Crystal
  • Almas Fronterizas
  • "Drunktown's Finest"
  • Burial Ground Sound
  • Grace Rosario Perkins w/Amberlee Cotchay
  • Melissa Bennett w/Elizabeth LaPensée & Allie Vasquez

In between the low-rider bike workshops, storytelling sessions, art installations, poetry performances, and an Indigenous Futurisms film night curated by Grace Dillon, the festival is also showcasing some of the finest in Indigenous music culture.

On Tuesday, June 9th, Diné experimental/noise musician Raven Chacon (of Postcommodity), White Mountain Apache violinist Laura Ortman, and the Diné electro-queerpostpunk duo Discotays will throw down at the Holocene. Event info is below.

The One Flaming Arrow Festival continues through June 14th. Check the festival program for the full schedule of events.

One Flaming Arrow offers stark and powerful evidence of the Indigenous artists at the forefront of the contemporary creative arts. May this year be the first of many to come.

Listen to an OPB radio interview on the One Flaming Arrow Festival

 

JUNE 9th: Laura Ortman & Raven Chacon Performance and the Discotays at the Holocene!

9:30pm-11:30pm Holocene: 1001 SE Morrison, Portland 97214 Join us on June 9th, 2015 at the Holocene in Portland, Oregon for Raven Chacon & Laura Ortman + Discotays. We have the honor of showcasing two award-winning multi-instrumentalists, Indigenous composers Raven Chacon & Laura Ortman along with the musical styling of Discotrays.

Tickets available here

DISCOTAYS (Diné) are a music duo from Navajo Nation, comprised of artists Hansen Ashley & Brad Charles. Their music has been adored by the likes of Kathleen Hanna and can be described as post-punk electro & queerpostpunk / queerpostsurf / queernowave.

Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache) has performed with Stars Like Fleas, the Dust Dive & Silver Summit, & composes music for art installations & films in the form of the Dust Dive Flash. She plays violin, Apache violin, piano, electric guitar, musical saw & samplers. Ortman has created music for films by Martha Colburn & Indigenous filmmakers Blackhorse Lowe, Alan Michelson, & Raquel Chapa, among others.

Raven Chacon (Diné/Chicano) is a chamber music composer & experimental noise artist. Chacon is a member of the Indigenous art collective, Postcommodity, with whom he has developed multi-media installations that have been exhibited internationally. Both his solo work & his work with Postcommodity has been presented at the Sydney Bienale, Kennedy Center, Adelaide International, Vancouver Art Gallery, Musée d’ art Contemporain de Montréal, The San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, Chaco Canyon, & Performance Today. Tickets are $8 in advance & $10 at the door. 21 and over.

Watch Raven Chacon, Live at End Tymes in New York City