JHELISA
RELEASES EPIC NEW SINGLE
‘Purpose Love’
Listen here
+ Re-mastered debut album ‘Galactica Rush’
Available on special 30th anniversary vinyl now here & listen link
The enigmatic musical maverick Jhelisa returns to release her epic new single ‘Purpose Love’, out today on Dorado Records on all platforms. ‘Purpose Love’ is the original nine minute version, ‘Purpose Love’ (Acoustic Lovers Edit) is the first two minutes of the original and ‘Purpose Love’ (Edit) is a four minute edit of the main section of the original.
‘Purpose Love’ is an arresting, glorious, nine minute opus, with the mesmering opening lyric ‘You are the beauty that lives within the madness, Purpose Love’. The track is carried by Jhelisa’s incredible, deeply seductive vocals, astonishing in its unapologetic intensity and spiritual potency. The dazzling sonic odyssey journeys through sections of layered vocals, bluesy brass horns, hypnotic rhythms, infectious hooks, expansive jazz flute and saxophone, pacey percussion and droning didgeridoo. Sweet soul jazz with an edge, building and flowing towards a rapturous crescendo.
Jhelisa said “My initial inspiration for ‘Purpose Love’ was simple, a totally intentional lyric, no ambiguities, using a specific and direct message, that is recognising the love in life, honouring the love in my life, uplifting the love in my life, from all the places from which it comes…God, Family, Friends, Nature. A repetitive, motivating manifesto, an energy that is a proclamation sent out into the atmosphere with a mission to generate a counter energy to the chaos of crazy violence, ignorance and confusion permeating and threatening our very existence. The lyric ‘You are the BEAUTY that LIVES, My Purpose Is Love’ that thought and intention becomes a true force…the closest I will get to an invocation, incantation, hoodoo, used in the most positive way to produce the big balancing energy, feeling, and outcome…I hope this song is used to create a Love Revolution, madness is welcome but it won’t survive…Enjoy!”
Jhelisa also marks an incredible 30 years since the release of her acclaimed debut album ‘Galactica Rush’ and the new version of the album on vinyl is out now, beautifully remastered in Hi Res Audio and cut at half speed to vinyl by Miles Showell at Abbey Road from the original analogue Masters. When ‘Galactica Rush’ was originally released in 1994 on Dorado it was quickly hailed as a masterpiece by the media, from The Guardian, Time Out, i-D, NME, MOJO, Mixmag to Musicweek, ‘Galactica Rush’ became one of the greatest neo soul, jazz funk and trip hop albums of all time and a seminal essential for the record collector.
Jhelisa, who GQ dubbed ‘Cosmic princess of soul’, has been marching through uncharted musical territories since the mid-1990s when she stunned audiences and critics with both her extraordinary voice and deliciously daring music. Mississippi-born Jhelisa comes from a musical family and is the niece of funk pioneers Vicki Anderson and Bobby Byrd from the James Brown band, and the cousin of Carleen & Bartlett Anderson and sister of Pamela Anderson from Incognito’s ‘100° and Rising’ album. Across 4 solo albums released on seminal London label Dorado Records, Jhelisa has journeyed through soul, trip hop, jazz, avant-garde, gospel and esoteric sonic experimentations. She has been the go-to vocalist for the likes of Bjork, Massive Attack and The Shamen, and toured with James Brown, The Roots, Herbie Hancock, Sting, and recorded with Chaka Khan and Bryan Ferry. Her thrillingly genre-smashing approach to music subverts her sweet, sensual voice with emotionally raw, spiritually resonant lyrics and a musical sophistication seen nowhere else. In 2022, Jhelisa surprise released ‘Oxygen’, which Gilles Peterson hailed “She’s back… the return of Jhelisa… extraordinarily brilliant… well worth the wait”. Jhelisa is currently working on her fifth studio album ‘Wild Orbits’, expected in 2025.
‘Purpose Love’ is a tour de force that took a year to complete between Jhelisa in Atlanta and collaborators in the US, UK and around the world. Co-produced by Jhelisa and her regular collaborator Jono Podmore, who also performed on theremin and synths, with Finn Peters on flute, piccolo and sax (who previously featured on Jhelisa’s 3rd album ‘A Primitive Guide to Being There’), with Brazilian artist Chocolat Costa on bass, guitar and percussion, Eric ‘Smooth’ Rose on drums, Contravious Render on bass, Eric ‘Ezy’ Tolliver on organ and keys, Kenton M. Davies on additional Drums and Sayako Sugawara providing field recordings, Chenitha Reddick on trombone and Philip Davis on trumpet.
Listen to ‘PurposeLove’ here
Download ‘PurposeLove’ here
Jhelisa Images & Biography here
Photo credit: Dwayne Boyd
Single artwork design: Rob Crane @RobCraneDesign
Art Direction: Jhelisa & Azaria Gadson https://www.azariag.com/
www.dorado.net
