New Audio: Genesis Owusu Shares Glistening, Woozy “BIG DOG”

Acclaimed multi-ARIA Award-winning Ghanian-born Canberra-based JOVM mainstay Genesis Owusu released this highly anticipated third album REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE today through OURNESS.

REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE sees one of Australia’s most celebrated and visionary contemporary artists construct an exposed state-of-the-day record that’s experimental yet cohesive, desolate yet ecstatic, unflinching yet free. Duality is at the core of an album that sees the JOVM mainstay layering musings on an unsettled world with piercing reflections of his, and our own places within the world. Rich in lyricism and earnest in its message, REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE is a resolute effort that confronts a divisive era in which humanity and its institutions seem to be ripping apart at the seams and heeds a desperate need for unity. 

Sonically drawing from and meshing elements funk, neo-soul, Brit rock and alt pop the album’s overall sound feels both sprawling and deliberate. “The world hasn’t ended yet,” Owusu. says. “We’re still moving, we’re still jumping, we’re still living, and so we shall continue. Through rain, shine, exploitation and warfare. We, the people, will always stubbornly persist, and hopefully persist hand in hand.”

The album includes the previously released “DEATH CULT ZOMBIE,” “STAMPEDE, “LIFE KEEPS GOING,” and the album’s latest single “BIG DOG.” Drawing from footwork, drum ‘n’ bass, glitchcore, and alt R&B, “BIG DOG” is anchored around a dense layers of dizzying synth arpeggios and skittering beats. The acclaimed JOVM mainstay alternates between punchily delivered bars and crooning over the woozy, uneasy production. The song sees Owusu surveying the world’s wreckage and takes aim at the higher institutional forces at play while still being danceable and oddly enough, almost feel good.

Owusu says of the “It’s a jam, man. Just something to have fun and feel good to. In the context of everything I’ve been releasing, the political, the disruptive, the punk – it’s important to remember what all that fighting is for: we’re fighting to be able to live life to the fullest. Live, laugh, love and all that. Fight for your right to party, as some wise men once said.”

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