Today, Danger Mouse’s label 30th Century Records releases 30th Century Volume 2 a compilation celebrating the label’s highlight releases from 2019. Coinciding with and included in the launch is a track and accompanying video from the label’s newest signee, London-based, New Yorker Baba Ali. The track is called “House” and it is co-produced by Baba and The Kills’ Jamie Hince. It comes from Baba’s debut EP for 30th Century Records which will be released in February 2020. ***Born in New York but a resident of the UK for the last few years as he completed a master’s degree in fine art, Baba Ali has spent the last few years honing both his music and his visual art while attending Goldsmiths University.
Previously part of the future-soul duo Voices of Black who released an LP on electronic artist Gold Panda’s record label, NOTOWN, Baba released his debut solo EP in 2017, which saw him nominated by Pitchfork as an up-and-coming artist. The Nomad EP is now approaching 2 million plays on Spotify, with lead track “Cog In The Wheel” an ode to the daily grind being singled out for praise and popularity in particular.
Baba spent the intervening period touring with the likes of Gold Panda, Jonny Greenwood’sJununproject, Shigeto and Kele Okereke, as well as writing and producing further, alongside his art. In addition, he released the one-off single “I’ve Been Voodoo’d.”
Early in 2019 Baba Ali recorded a new set of music with Jamie Hince, those songs found their way to acclaimed artist-producer Brian Burton, AKA Danger Mouse, and they have subsequently become Baba’s latest release, the This House EP, set for release early 2020.
Baba explains, “The songs were written and demos recorded in the living room of a flat I was renting in south London near the end of 2018. At this time I had also started collaborating with my guitarist Nik, who I had met while bartending in Whitechapel. A few months later the songs were taken to LA, where we worked with Jamie Hince and The Kills. We’ve long been fans of their music and Jamie brought a fresh angle and energy that gave the tracks a new life and immediate fullness. This track was perfect to start with to bring the walls down, so to speak. It’s funky with a hardened edge. It’s urgent and it’s fed up. I remember writing the lyrics on a roll of receipt paper at the end of a long bar shift staring out at a crowd of drunkards.”