A letter to all the loves bastards
Rosegold is the latest EP from Joburg-based spoken word artists Letters Fitzgerald. Continuing with the sound laid out for her by production duo Kamehameha Boyz (Argentine Merseyside and Irrelevant Papi) on her debut EP SWAROVSKI SPIDER WEBS, the jazz-heavy beats are the perfect sail as her sultry poems glide you through this 8 track offering.
The project opens with arguably the standout track ‘Velvet Voodoo’ featuring fellow poet Kayla Freitas (aka Sah) Smooth 808 thumps courtesy of Argentine Merseyside lay a canvas for Letters to paint a sultry and vivid post-coital image of a naked body standing against the wall, cigarette in hand with chipped red nails reminiscing on the spiritual ritual of two bodies becoming one. Which leads beautifully into another standout track Book of Eve (part 1), although short features the best piece of production on the EP from the aforementioned Argentine Merseyside.
Intergalactic Brothel opens with a seemingly relentless heavy guitar riff, which according to co-producer Irrelevant Papi was inspired by japanese manga series Battle Angel Alita, and features some of Letter’s more aggressive lyrics. “This is the new opulence and everyone here is a motherf*cking suspect” she says commandingly, almost as a directive to the listener to take heed of her words.
The ‘Husky Voice Theory Letters’ is joined by Pretoria based rapper, and one half of rapper/producer duo RVIP along with Irrelevant Papi, Riz Ventura on a beat backed by the percussions of a melodic xylophone. Ever heard of the husky voice theory? Veiled, husky voices are the sexiest on the planet and Letters sure has the words to let you know how that makes her feel.
My highlight is Papi’s Interlude, an adlib filled spoken word piece that if you followed Papi on Twitter sounds like a thread on verbal flexing. In the words of Irrelevant Papi this EP is “cocoa butter crystals, jamaican airhorns at your funeral… TAX HAVEN MUSIC.”
