AISHA BADRU – EP REVIEW


Aisha Badru – Transcendence EP (Nettwerk) 
Aisha Badru - Transcendence

Release Date: Out Now

Has it been a tough week? Need to unwind and feel the stress drain from your body, mind and soul? Then turn your phone off, find a cosy corner and settle in with the new EP from the sublime Aisha Badru. The ‘Transcendence EP’ is an oasis of beauty and calm that you can just melt in to without any effort and that is a truly rare thing in the world of 2020. The first of the five songs is ‘Millennial’, a track that wanders in on the breeze followed by the buzz of bees and the free laughter of children in a playground. Badru’s soft strumming and almost confessional vocal style speak of the endings of youth and the excitement of new beginnings; “this is the dawning of our lives but we’re in debt up to our eyes, is this the cost to be alive? A slave to bills until we die”. It is both beautiful and depressing, in equal measure.

‘Forest Green’ continues the ultra-chilled vibe and, honestly, Badru’s voice is just one of the most pure and innocent things I have heard in a very, very long time. Probably my favourite track on the EP, ‘Water’ is the sound of all pressure and control being relinquished to the will of nature set to soft, summer afternoon keys and near whispered vocals; “loosen up your grasp, everything’s not meant to last”. So true. On ‘Love Doesn’t Fade’ Badru becomes clearer about her melody as we are transported to the last corner of sunlight in a New York back yard at the end of summer, transitioning into the autumn evenings.

This simply sublime collection closes out on ‘Soil’s Daughter’ and it is a song that feels as though it was created entirely organically directly from the soul which is, in turn, good for our souls. People talk a lot about the music they want at their funeral but I think this is the music I want to listen to last before I shuffle off this mortal coil – I want to enter whatever afterlife there is with this much calm and joy in my heart.