The Neighbourhood Character, real name Ari Robey-Lawrence, has put out Down Fruitvale, a new digital EP with a remix from Laurel Halo.
“Tender Blooms,” the opening track, is a work Robey-Lawrence made back in 2016 and 2017 with the intention of recapturing the nostalgia of her childhood.
“It’s a jam I made thinking back, for instance, to the feelings of half-awake morning car rides to school as a kid,” she explains. “To me, reminiscing on such fragile (yet vivid) memories in a present, or future, moment feels like a radical act in our current climate, as we all work to understand and accept the reality that there is clearly “‘no going back.'”
The cover artwork is an image taken at Los Angeles’ Woodlawn Cemetery in January 2020.
“Somehow it represents the simultaneously (sub)-conscious feeling of actively trying to remember, to be hold and be held by long past, fragments of our own experiences,” she continues. “It’s as if you’ve been given a window into another reality that is at once concrete, and obscured.”
The Neighbourhood Character is a Berlin, Germany-based producer and vocalist hailing from Oakland, California. Alongside New York’s Afrikan Sciences, she forms Old Shady Grady & The Neighbourhood Character. She released No Ghost, a deep house EP, last year, before October’s There Will Be Magic.
Old Shady Grady & The Neighbourhood Character released Tangle Transmogrifier in August.
Tracklisting
01. Tender Blooms (Down Fruitvale)
02. Leaves, Thorns & Stems (Down Fruitvale Laurel Halo’s Dusk Mix)
Down Fruitvale is available now, with a full stream below.
