Kassa Overall Announces New Album, Animals

Seattle-born, Brooklyn-based drummer, singer, emcee and producer Kassa Overall has announced his new album, Animals, which comes out May 26 via Warp Records. 

The LP features a super stacked guest list, with contributions from Danny Brown, Shabazz Palaces, Vijay Iyer, Wiki, Laura Mvula, Lil B, Francis and the Lights, Nick Hakim and Theo Croker. 

“We call ourselves humans, right,” Overall said in a press statement. “But we kind of do animalistic shit towards each other. We justify immorality by almost stripping people of their humanity. He’s an animal, so we can treat him as such.  All these different kinds of little questions in these songs point to questions about humanity: Am I free? Or am I a circus animal? These questions intersect with the way I think about race.”

With Animals, his Warp Records debut, Overall uses music to push the message, utilizing layers of Roland 808 breaks against avant-garde drumming in the vein of his mentors Elvin Jones and Billy Hart, the latter of whom he studied with at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Improvisational jazz maneuvering, meanwhile, weaves in and out of orchestral string arrangements by Jherek Bischoff.

Watch the video for the first single off Animals, “Make My Way Back Home,” and find Kassa’s upcoming tour dates below (including a gig in Ellenville, NY? Random!).

Tracklist:

1. Anxious Anthony [ft. Anthony Ware]

2. Ready to Ball

3. Clock Ticking [ft. Danny Brown and Wiki]

4. Still Ain’t Find Me [ft. Tomoki Sanders, Bendji Allonce, Mike King and Ian Finkelstein]

5. Make My Way Back Home [ft. Nick Hakim and Theo Croker]

6. The Lava Is Calm [ft. Theo Croker]

7. No It Ain’t [ft. Andrae Murchison]

8. So Happy [ft. Laura Mvula and Francis and the Lights]

9. It’s Animals

10. Maybe We Can Stay [ft. J. Hoard]

11. The Score Was Made [ft. Vijay Iyer]

12. Going Up [ft. Lil B, Shabazz Palaces and Francis and the Lights]

 

Tour Dates

05-04 New Orleans, LA – House of Blues 

05-07 Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel

05-09 Nashville, TN – Brooklyn Bowl 

05-10 Memphis, TN – Minglewood Hall 

05-11 St. Louis, MO – Delmar Hall 

06-06 Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle

06-07 Detroit, MI – Marble Bar

06-08 Toronto, Ontario – TD Music Hall at Allied Music Centre

06-10 Ellenville, NY – Love, Velma at The Mod House

06-12 Marlboro, NY – The Falcon

06-13 Philadelphia, PA – The Lounge at World Cafe Live

06-14 Creative Alliance – Baltimore, MD

06-15 Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right

06-16 Washington, D.C. – CapitalBop

06-23 Los Angeles, CA – Zebulon

08-12 Dorset, England – We Out Here Festival

08-27 Port Townsend, WA – Thing Festival

09-14 Oslo, Norway – By:Larm

 

VIDEO: Kassa Overall “Make My Way Back Home”