DESIRE MAREA – ON THE ROMANCE OF BEING
A true work of art that has left Pavlis gobsmacked.
A few weeks ago, I was driving in to the city and listening 6Music when something came on that was so astonishing I had to pull over to listen properly. That has never happened before. That song was Rah by Desire Marea (featuring Zöe Modiga).
Marea is a member of South African queer culture figureheads FAKA and released his debut album in 2020. On The Romance Of Being is his second solo album and is, perhaps, even more astonishing than that single. As brilliant as Rah is, the other seven track on this LP are almost all as great, if not better. The PR blurb describes it as “truly unlike anything you will likely have heard before”. I would normally dismiss a statement such as that as hyperbole but it is 100% warranted: I can’t think of another LP that has prompted such an immediate, visceral reaction in me.
Together with a thirteen strong ensemble of musicians, the album was recorded live, with a number of the songs being first takes. The sounds take in a multitude of sounds, influences and genres - from gospel, classical, the traditional music of the Nguni and Ndau peoples and opera to post-rock via kwaito, deep house, jazz and who knows what else – to create something that is deeply spiritual and, by turns, profoundly soothing and intensely uplifting.
I don’t have the words to do justice to this work of art. All I can say is check it out. It really is genuinely the most original, most exciting album I have heard for a long time.
10/10
