REVIEW: Aluna releases hypnotic new album 'MYCELiUM'
Words: Jett Tattersall
Image: Maya Fuhr
“There’s no equation for this life” trills dancehall music maker Aluna on ‘Mine O Mine’, the classic four-on-the-floor house banger from her sophomore solo album, MYCELiUM, “cos givin' up, lyin’ down, baby it’s misery.” Plagued by her frustrations with Black representation in dance music - a sonic world created and elevated by the Black and LGBTQ+ community - Aluna gathered an ever-growing core of Black dance artists and LGBTQ+ collaborators and allies for MYCELiUM. Her reign in the ears of midnight clubbers is globally renowned, and on MYCELiUM, with her troop, she cuts and weaves a neon tapestry of after-hours anthems.
MYCELiUM succeeds 2020's Renaissance, a banging debut solo album of pop-house, dance, funk, Caribbean club and even the occasional snippet of R&B that, at its core, lyrically and musically, told Aluna's story of “a black girl in an all-white British suburb back in the day” to a collection of unforgettable hooks. In the years that followed, Aluna considered how Black women were puppeteered in dance music as "vocals sprinkled over tracks", she playfully imagined herself a superheroine for DJmag: "I’d be called Magic, the Token Black Diva of Dance Music — and my superpower is to breathe life into white mens careers, and then disappear off into the night."
MYCELiUM's disco-house 'Supernova' (with The Picard Brothers & Kaleena Zanders) breathes this fantasy to life, “now she’s arrived, just like a light,” Zanders sings, her vocals the perfect counterpart to Aluna's signature "little voice". Insomniac night-drive 'The Way I’m Wired' hits the floor with the bassline thumping, and sets the tone for the whole album. Seductive banger 'Beggin' (with Chris Lake) opens with a flurry of "Ahhs "and "Oohs" reminiscent of Donna Summer, "I look so obedient" that pepper the track before Aluna slips into a digitally distorted carnally ravenous monster, "but I'ma give you a fright." 'Running Blind', a solid album highlight, is New Jack Swing on a bag of cherry red jelly frogs, "I'll never let my soul down," it's impossible not to grin while this one plays. And on the recent teaser ‘Oh The Glamour’ with Pabllo Vittar, MNEK & Eden Prince, Aluna muses on the luxury of a world where one's sense of self-worth and pride was secure. “Black and LGBTQ+ people go through a lot of shit, but we often present ourselves as glamorous,” she spoke of the song "Glamour can often be a method to break free, celebrate, and thrive.”
Aluna's drive to push the boundaries of music has always come from a grounded stance of refusing to be boxed in. She creates dance music, a genre, typically overrun with straight white men, and, true to its name, delivers us a plethora of solid tunes to dance to. “Drop some diamonds on me, come on, share that gold mine” she soars on 'Mine O Mine', “cos you know I do it better, you’re just scared to know what would happen if I knew my worth and let it go.” MYCELiUM's Aluna knows her worth; with a battalion of hand-picked collaborators by her side, she calls us to the glitter-splattered club with her syrupy vocals, caution to the wind and iconic aptitude for throwing down a beat and seeing where it lands.
MYCELiUM is out now via Mad Decent. You can buy and stream here.
To keep up with all things Aluna you can follow her on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Twitter.
