Manchester’s I Am Fya’s new audio-visual album ‘Homeland’ is a project that’s been evolving for some time. She swaggered into the electronic, avant-pop arena with the punchy ‘A Womxn’ debut in 2019, a dark dub, twitchy glitch, post-mod RnB drill down into socio-sexual dynamics. It was some announcement followed up by a string of forceful digi- releases which concluded in with ‘Consciousness’, her first team up with Brighton’s Rose Hill Records in 2022. Here were signs of I Am Fya’s soundscape defining its orientation, a more electronic, intense weaving of street sounds, searching vocals, scratchy percussion and poignant lyrical commentary.
Coincidental with such sonic shifts were the seismic times of COVID, a period when I Am Fya faced a prolonged stay in Barbados during the pandemic to help care for her unwell parents. It’s the sounds she captured there, the field recordings and atmospherics, plus the emotional impact of those months which have filtered into her music and performances ever since. Now with the release of ‘Homeland’, again on Rose Hill, the elements have been forged into an ambitious, multi-dimensional creative work in the shape of a live performance piece, which premiered at the Brighton Festival this year, an incoming movie and this album. That doesn’t mean that the auditory ‘Homeland’ experience is simply a soundtrack. Much like Gazelle Twin’s work the music has a rich narrative flow which underpins its progression. In other words, even with headphones on, eyes shut, the imagery and story her music reveals is stunningly vivid.
I Am Fya’s ‘Homeland’ sets out to probe personal ancestry, notions of belonging and what this can mean universally. That requires a long form approach with samples of found sound from her Barbadian stay providing the context and binding while also injecting the album with extra vitality. Scenes are set from the off, a slow rhythmic thud and whispers framing I Am Fya’s dreamy vocal plea “Can you help me I’m trying to find the ancestors”. The layered Peace Within The Chaos follows, a sound collage of bird song, low drones, that lone spiritual vocal and a shift into a bustling hospital room where words and phrases pass by. The experimentalism is surprising here, an indication that I Am Fya is not content to restrict ‘Homeland’ by sticking to EDM convention.
Even the first, more formal ‘song’, the pulsating i2i brings plenty of the unexpected. The sound is stark and pared down , pounding minimal rhythms, snatches of chiming keys, synth rumbles and an eerie vocal swirl which congeals into a celestial tunefulness. It’s glitchy, complex and angular, futuristic drum and bass with a soulful edge. 2nd Home comes rammed with similar daring. I Am Fya’s vocals build bewilderingly, snatches of hypnotic groans and choral sighs mingling with sampled shouts. There’s some haunted atmospherics going on here, as a lacerating loop and rattling kettle drum dominate.
Maybe there are hints of Carl Stone’s dogged minimalism about the process I Am Fya is working through but her music has more of a dramatic flair about it, often highlighted by her powerfully expressive vocal tones. On the revisit of her 2022 track Consciousness that voice soars around the bass booms and skittering beats, adding a cosmic jazz elevation to this surging electronic mantra. Like Moor Mother, I Am Fya’s voice is central to her musical statements.
Clearly this physical presence is fundamental to the strength of ‘Homeland’. It’s about people and places after all, reflecting day to day happenings and their impact, a story that’s not imagined or surreal but one that’s packed with personality. The conversations with her family, the street encounters, the beeps and bustling, her mother’s singing and Grandma’s banter build the spine of this album, allowing I Am Fya’s sonic imagination to stride out.
Check out The Sun Will Kill Me, a sensitive, thought-provoking, thick rhythmed slice of electro avant-pop which ingeniously captures the friendship I Am Fya struck up with Amiya, the daughter of her father’s carer. It’s Amiya’s singing, phone recorded on one of their sun-baked walks, that gives The Sun Will Kill Me its title, hook and uplift. With trap-beat tensions and sound system density, lyrical flow and trip-hop echoes, the track ticks all the boxes and more. When the rain fall/I wish I knew is equally dynamic. Kicked off by her grandmother’s wise words, the cut’s moody Tricky-esque pace gets shaken by urgent hand percussion and the burning ache of I Am Fya’s grieving vocal. ’I wish I knew, the last time I saw you would be the last time I saw you’ she realises with a chill.
It’s this personal dimension, often more buried in electronic/experimental music, which defines ‘Homeland’ and makes it stand out. Perhaps best listened to as a whole without the streaming breaks it echoes the integrity and emotion that Matana Roberts has instilled in her seminal ‘Coin Coin’ album series. As the dubstep-meets-nu- calypso closing track This World With Me carnivals into a dream-space, you catch the words ‘‘Now that I’ve found you – come take my hand” and sense, if not closure some resolution. You could imagine that bringing the project together has been a cathartic journey for I Am Fya but sense that the album could also point the way forwards for her next direction. Whatever, wherever that may be you should make sure you are on alert to tune in.
Get your digi-copy of ‘Homeland’ by I Am Fya direct from Rose Hill Records HERE
