WAHALA by YATTA

"WAHALA is poetry: it understands language as a carrier of history, images and associative emotions. “This album is about being black, being trans, and being African on foreign land. It’s about the tension, splitting, mania, psychosis, and depression” writes YATTA, who realizes these themes by exploring the choral potential of the most vulnerable of all solo instruments, voice. Really consider YATTA’s words, their different singing and speaking styles that range from blues to chiptune (“It’s also about making jokes”), the radical edits and elaborately layered arrangements and WAHALA will be some of your most essential listening of 2019 and beyond."
- FACT 'Quarter Report: The 25 best albums of the last three months: July to September 2019', Oct. 17, 2019. Web.
https://www.factmag.com/2019/10/17/quarter-report-july-august-september/
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"This music owes as much to Sonic Youth’s 'Confusion Is Sex' as it does Erykah Badu, joining the aforementioned generation of musicians in pioneering fresh ways of exploring rich cultural and personal themes in illogical sonic shapes.

The Sierra Leonean-American YATTA plots a route through 'WAHALA' like an art exhibition, presenting each piece as a collection of thoughts sewn together in a colourful fashion. (...) Voices also flood the record, with YATTA’s words variably fired through cyborgian effects, spiritualized incantations, and theatrical readings, often taking the form of memorable and potent one-liners. They do a brilliant job of pointing to the heart of YATTA’s chosen themes in limited space; in this case themes of “being black, being trans, and being African on foreign land” (...) While chaos is something of an aesthetic choice here, disintegrating the material into a dreamy, psychedelic, and often anti-musical potpourri of thoughts, this only strengthens its vibe and message. It’s like climbing inside YATTA’s mind, words and ideas butting up against each other, whispered melodies lingering unfinished between a sonic mulch of processed samples."
- The Quietus 'Spool's Out: Cassette Reviews For July By Tristan Bath', July 22, 2019. Web.
https://thequietus.com/articles/26833-ptp-leaf-library-fort-evil-fruit-cassette-tape-review
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“This album is about being black, being trans, and being African on foreign land. It's about the tension, splitting, mania, psychosis, and depression that work like a symphony of Bop It!s to keep me alive. It’s cyclical. It's meant to be played in bed, and then at the club, and then walking down the street, and then back in bed. It’s also about making jokes with yourself to hide what’s meant to be kept for just you. Maya Angelou says to keep a room in your heart just for god. My room is full of rage, questions, confusion, and pain - I’m trying to get it clean and pristine, baby!”

YATTA is an interdisciplinary artist, digipoet, and musician. They use incantations born of loop pedal drones, channeled screams, and improvised poetry to explore connections between psychosis, prayer, and presence.

'WAHALA' is the 2nd album by YATTA.

Tracklist:
1. A Lie
2. Blues
3. Cowboys
4. Bliss
5. Rollin
6. Sullivan Place
7. Francis
8. Galaxies
9. I Will Definitely Feel Good
10. Shine
11. Underwater, Now

counter-industrial purveyors of weaponized media and information | PTP (aka Purple Tape Pedigree aka Power Through People aka Protect The Peace) is a collective + label

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