Jeremy Scott’s Cartoon Savannah

Jeremy Scott’s first collection for Adidas, released earlier this year, was a glittery-gold selection of irresistibly cut (wearable) harem pants, sequins, sporty fringed tanks and coveted winged hightops. His next installment abandons his black-gold-and-silver, Studio 54 color palette for a hue explosion and elongation of the tribal streetwear trend pioneered by MIA and Cassette Playa. Leopard-spotted sweatshirts, global mapped bodycon dresses and “tribal mask”-printed, exposed-pocket track suits all make appearances in this eminently watchable video collaboration with the video director Nabil. Appropriately, The Very Best, Esau Mwamwaya, MIA and Santigold soundtrack the trampoliney splashing around his collection apparently demands.

Premiere: The Very Best f. MIA, “Rain Dance” MP3

FADER #52 cover The Very Best, aka Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit, join with FADER #27 cover and all-around FADER muse MIA for one of the more hectic deep cuts off The Warm Heart of Africa LP, finally available for purchase tomorrow. Samples identified so far: whistles, crickets, handclaps, toads, a rainstick, thunder, actual rain, heavy breathing and either a baby hiccuping or some kind of bird. We’ve been dancing along for about an hour and don’t see any clouds looming but we are sweating something crazy, so that has to count for something. Pre-order the album on iTunes today or go back tomorrow and buy it in real time. And if you want it on vinyl or CD, that will be available on October 6th. Advance copies come with a body sponge. Not true, but it is incredible.



Download: The Very Best f. MIA, “Rain Dance”

The Very Best, “Warm Heart of Africa” + “Yalira” MP3

The Very Best putting out “Warm Heart of Africa,” with guest vocals by Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig, as the first single off their album is a great bait-and-switch: goofy, chunky radio pop where the rest of the album is majestic and humid electronic anthemics. The b-side of the single, “Yalira,” also from the album, is a lot more representative, so hopefully people like it as much as they seem to like the Koenig joint, because this album is the reason we put The Very Best on the cover 19 months ago, before they were even called The Very Best.

Buy the 7-inch from Green Owl with art from Côte d’Ivoirian artist BP Konan.



Download: The Very Best, “Warm Heart of Africa”



Download: The Very Best, “Yalira”

Advertisement

FADER TV: The Very Best Come to NYC

The last time we saw The Very Best was through a chainlink fence in an alley in Austin, Texas. Despite putting Esau Mwamwaya on the cover of our magazine a year before, we could not part the sea of bouncers until a friend with veto power got us in. This time, when Mwamwaya and Radioclit played a more proper show at New York’s Le Poisson Rouge, we had much better access caught up with them for some talk on “The Warm Heart of Africa” (the song, the album, the sentiment) and snagged live video of their seriously ferocious set.

Ghetto Palms: GP All-Stars/Exclusive Esau Mwamwaya Refix

In the past week almost every damn artist I would consider a signature Ghetto Palms poster-child has represented with crushing new tunes or refixes in a similar vibe (Busy Signal and Erup have both been putting enough overtime lately to be excused from this session.) The common ground is a 120 bpm neighborhood situated somewhere between synth pop and ragga soca, a tempo I have given up trying to name and will simply call the “sweet spot.” Hence, the Ghetto Palms All-Stars blend.

Read More

Freeload: The Very Best f. Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend, “Warm Heart of Africa (Theophilus London Remix)” MP3

Consider this the DJ Khaled-style remix for people who veer into weirder lanes than commercial rap. Our man Theophilus London gives himself the leadoff verse on The Very Best’s eponymous new song, with an assist from Ezra of Vampy Weeks, from their upcoming album Warm Heart of Africa. Make this official! Read our feature story on Theophilus from the David Byrne icon issue here.



Download: The Very Best f. Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend, “Warm Heart of Africa (Theophilus London Remix)”

Advertisement

Stream: The Very Best (Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit), “Ntende Uli”

Since putting Esau Mwamwaya on the cover of FADER #52, we have made a point of hanging out with him whenever possible. He rolled through The Fort in Texas with Johan and Etienne of Radioclit and then stopped by The Let Out, our weekly show on East Village Radio, a couple months ago to sing some of his hits live and direct (video above). If we had some of that big money, we would just hire him to be the Happy Dude on staff, but we will take his new music as no short consolation. “Ntende Uli” is from The Very Best’s forthcoming fall album on Green Owl, Warm Heart of Africa, and it is a powerful jam. We’re pretty sure Esau will sing it when he plays a handful of tour dates this summer along with, hopefully, a good chunk of Warm Heart. Check the dates and the stream at the link below.

Stream: The Very Best (Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit), “Ntende Uli”

FADER TV/Audio: Esau Mwamwaya on East Village Radio

Last Friday on The Let Out (our weekly show on East Village Radio, made possible by Dewars), a very special guest from The Very Best named Esau Mwamwaya came through in the second hour to recreate his FADER Issue #52 cover story live and in the flesh by singing all our favorites right in front of us. We were hugging fools on the street it was so beautiful. And we got him on video doing “Tengazako” for FADER TV. Watch it above, listen live toEast Village Radio this and every following Friday from 6-8pm EST, stream last week’s audio podcast below and check out the tracklist after the jump.

-Stream the 3/27 edition of “The Let Out” here.

Read More

The Let Out: Esau Mwamwaya

This week on The Let Out, our weekly East Village Radio show (made possible by Dewars), FADER 52 cover star (and ridiculously awesome artist) Esau Mwamwaya is coming through to sing, play records and generally jam it out with the FADER cast and crew. Listen live to The Let Out at eastvillageradio.com from 6-10pm EST.

Video: The Very Best (Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit), “Kamphopo”

From Johan of Radioclit:

Esau Mwamwaya went back to Lelongwe, Malawi in October 2008 for the first time in 9 years. I came with him to play at the Lake Of Stars festival and to shoot this video and film his homecoming in general. We had a crazy respons from local press, radio and tv. we rehearsed at Lucius Banda’s famous ‘Summit’ venue for 3 days with local dancers. We went to see the live venue where Esau’s music career started ‘Village Lodge’, and we hung out with Esau’s family and their neighbours outside of Lelongwe. Most of the kids dancing in the video is Esau’s brothers and all their neighbours kids. They all new all the words by the time we got there, very cute! We played Lake Of Stars festival, which argubly might be the best festival in the world. Ive been meaning to edit all the material since then but havnt had time. Now ive finally manged to sit down and do it and hopefully you’ll like it and get a little bit of insight into what Esau Mwamwaya is up to in Malawi at the moment.

Download: The Very Best Mixtape (one of the very best albums of 2008)

Read: FADER Cover Story on Esau Mwamwaya

POPULAR

RECENT

THE FADER NEWSLETTER

Get weekly highlights and exclusive content from thefader.com delivered via email.