March 3rd – The Lantern
2016 looks set to be a particularly affirming year for Saul Williams as he embarks on a new world tour following the release of his new album ‘Martyr Loser King’. A poet, performer, writer, actor and musician, Williams is one of the most engaging contemporary activists to create a dialogue for change with his art.
Fused with Williams’s characteristic rebellious energy, sociopolitical context and present-day allegory, ‘Martyr Loser King’ channels the voices of the disenfranchised with compassion and a defiant middle finger pointed at humanity’s oppressors. Structuring acute lyrical flows over industrial polyrhythmic beats, the album feels like a harkening to 2007’s Trent Reznor-produced ‘The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust’. For many fans, this will be a return to form; though for an artist as fluid in style as Saul Williams, this is only an accentuation of the rhythms which convey his message.
Having featured earlier this month in the BBC Radio 6 Music Festival, Williams mentioned that the music coming out of Bristol in the 90s was hugely influential to him as a musical explorer across the pond in Brooklyn. For this and the aforementioned reasons, his third visit to the city is guaranteed to be one show not to miss.
Check out the video for ‘Burundi’ featuring Emily Kokal of Warpaint right here:
