Maria Uzor – Innocence and Worldliness (Hey Buffalo)
A debut release from Sink Ya Teeth’s Maria Uzor sees her take a healing journey set to experimental dub and electro for Innocence and Worldliness, an EP which thrills from the off.
Artist: Maria Uzor
Release: Innocence and Worldliness
Label: Hey Buffalo
Released: 3 September 2021
Find it: Bandcamp | Spotify
Following on from her critically acclaimed work with Norwich post-punk band Sink Ya Teeth Maria Uzor has taken the solitude of lockdown to craft a solo offering with debut EP Innocence and Worldliness.
Across its 4 tracks we are taken on a journey through dub, techno, FlyLo, experimental futurism, and classic House. Drawn from club culture this is an EP which flits between those late night early morning energies, a lyrical reflection of resilience not only allowing survival but ultimately leading to a victorious self-actualisation. There is sharp cornering and squidgy beats, outer space cosmic-echoed vocals against walls of synths, loops around the rhythms, ever changing through the intelligent use of layered repetition. An astonishing listen from start to finish.
‘now is the discontent / now is the moment of ascent’
Of the EP Uzor said, “Lockdown afforded me the space to step back, and I realised how suffocated I’d become in a world that I felt didn’t see me, to the point where I couldn’t breathe. So I took loads of time out to be gentle with myself. I wrote nothing for most of the year until about December when I started writing the EP. Innocence And Worldliness is about the tail end of a journey, coming out of the dark and into the light. A gradual return to self and to joy.“
And what a return that is, with joy revelled in, expanding through the EP yet not unbounded. There is still careful restraint here, a sense of pieces being carefully chosen, a construction which pays no heed to genre or expectations of boundaries but ultimately presents the musical self as a brilliant, exploratory blend.
As a first solo work Innocence and Worldliness could hardly be a more distinct offering; a genre-blurring electro-hearted wonder which takes firm hold of you from the off. This is a release which gives as much, if not more, to the listener as it does to the artist. It builds on the legacy Uzor has founded with Sink Ya Teeth, further establishing her as one of the most creative and exciting artists around today.
Innocence and Worldliness EP by Maria Uzor is out now on vinyl and digital via Hey Buffalo.
Find Maria Uzor: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify | Bandcamp
We highlighted Sink Ya Teeth bandmate Gemma Cullingford’s album in our August albums of the month round-up.
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Sarah Lay
A long-standing music journalist she's also co-founder of independent record label Reckless Yes, an author of novels, and when not messing around with words and music, a digital strategist.
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