Let The Record Show II (2023)

A live performance of Outspoken Word + Subliminal Bass staged in a 1986 BMW e30 — transforming it into a sonic sculpture activated through spoken word.

BMW e30 with custom 500w sound system, text, soundscape, mixtape, laser light, portable PA, microphone, Pathani suit, dupatta, toran with plastic pearls, Reebok classics.

incantation and performance by Swan Nemesis
soundscape by Nina Radio Tapes + Ice Cream Mafia

Originally conceived and performed as a part of There Goes The Neighbourhood (2018), a composite work I created in the form of an experiential ‘drive by’ listening tour in a customised taxi, a three hour collaborative mixtape, an installation and large scale street posters featuring texts derived from conversations with habitants of my neighbourhood in Cliftonville, Margate.

This participatory and process led approach influenced my current practice and use of alter egos through a series of works including this live sound and spoken word performance. Here for the NAE Open at New Art Exchange, Nottingham, the work incorporates new texts specifically written in response to the Hyson Green neighbourhood where New Art Exchange is located; and the increasingly divisive political rhetoric around [im]migration. Reflecting on the weaponisation of words such as ‘refugee’ and ‘[im]migrant’ as used by politicians and media, further emboldening those who choose to spread hate.

The same mixtape of music created in 2018, could also be heard emanating from the car outside of the two performances at the launch of NAE Open Friday 19 May 2023. Five years on from its first performance in Cliftonville, Margate, the many sociocultural groups living and working within close proximity in an area of ongoing rapid socio-political transformation are echoed here in Hyson Green, Nottingham. Reverberations from the rich sonic cultures of people, the work confronts and questions that which is allowed to be seen, spoken and heard in public space. This performance has been awarded the Nottingham Contemporary Live Art Prize.

Photos by Tom Morley, courtesy of New Art Exchange. Hum Pardesi Log (Thumri : Pilu) by Begum Akhtar and Automatic Asla by Jazzy B, Dr Zeus and Nakeeta, are used at the start and end of this live performance for artistic purposes and in no way intended to harm, prejudice or attempt to own the copyrights of the original.