Boston duo Arms and Sleepers have been making rich, hip-hop indebted electronic soundscapes for about a decade now, resulting in five official albums and a pretty extensive and solid discography. On January 26, they’ll release their sixth album “Life Is Everywhere” and in anticipation of that release RedEye is premiering one of two collaborations the duo made with Chicago’s Serengeti, “Hollow Body Hold.” Like anything with the adventurous and dynamic local rapper, the track is very good. You can listen to it at the bottom of this post.
Serengeti isn’t the only Chicago connection to Arms and Sleepers’ new album. In fact, its genesis is thanks in part to member Mirza Ramic’s time on Chicago’s South Side, witnessing the discrimination and structural socioeconomic barriers facing the community. He explains to RedEye, “Last summer, I took a three-month break from promoting our 2014 album ‘Swim Team’ to do a fellowship in Chicago. I worked with underprivileged youth through a nonprofit educational organization, many of them coming from the South Side.” He adds, “It was a life-changing experience, meeting young people with incredible passion, talent, and energy, but also facing incredible obstacles erected by years of systemic racial discrimination.”
His statement continues, “In the midst of a city known to many visitors as a progressive, modern, and ‘cool’ place—especially in the summer—I found myself feeling uneasy and often angry. There was a whole segment of the population lacking access and opportunities that their northern white neighbors enjoyed without much thought.” He concludes, “‘Life is Everywhere’ is certainly an inevitable reaction to the deeply fundamental socioeconomic problems facing the United States, as experienced in one point of time last summer, in one place that is Chicago, by one guy that is me.'”
@joshhterry | jterry@redeyechicago.com
