Electric Relaxation: THEESatisfaction’s Cure

THHESatisfaction

Just when you want to call the 2012 phenomenon complete hogwash, all kinds of musical gems start to surface. Hmmm, maybe the Aquarian is rising. In Accra and all over. Even Seattle.

Yo, what is going on in the rainy capital right now? Something is in the water and it seems like Sub Pop Records is stirring the brew. First, the sheer refreshing brilliance of Shabazz Palaces and now THHESatisfaction?!! Be still, beating heart.

THHESatisfaction is next-level femme fatale music. Poet/MC Stasia “Stats” Iron matched up with singer Catherine “Cat” Harris-White in 2008. She recalls, “I was attracted to Cat’s voice, I would go to the open mic and close my eyes and zone out whenever she sang.” Think Floetry x Georgia Ann Muldrow x The Cool Kids. Ok, that’s being reductive. More like futuristic old school R&B politico-erotica.

It’s deeper than that – the colors, the tones, the rhythms are like sitting in a electronic, liquid rose garden that suddenly morphs into unicorns, sparkling reindeer and tie-die batik bulls. Insane, fluid melodies in a pleasantly syncopated form is what we have here, folks.

Check out THEESatisfaction’s (@StasandCat) latest video: QueenS, a lush vintage Afro-feminine fantasy that rivals the kick-ass sensuality of Pam Grier + Cleopatra Jones.

Now see how they rip it live:

And in the studio:

Hip hop duo Shabazz Palaces (fellow labelmates at Sub Pop – THEESatisfaction debuted on Palaces’ 2011 Black Up album) consists of rapper Palaceer Lazaro (formerly Butterfly of Diggable Planets) and Zimbabwean-American multi-instrumentalist, Tendai ‘Baba’ Maraire. Check out their short film, Belhaven Meridian, an ode to Charles Burnett’s 1977 Watts cult classic, Killer of Sheep: