Red Bull Music Academy brings eclectic sounds to NYC during its three-and-a-half-week series of concerts, talks and more
You’d be hard-pressed to find a connecting thread between hip-hop beatmaker Metro Boomin and avant-classical guitarist-composer Glenn Branca, if it weren’t for the annual Red Bull Music Academy. Starting Friday, April 29, the three-and-a-half-week series hosts musicians from a diverse range of genres at conversations, installations, and concerts in NYC, often in one-off configurations and unlikely venues. Branca airs his symphonies in Chelsea’s historic Masonic Hall on Monday, May 16, while Metro Boomin joins fellow producers Sonny Digital and Zaytoven for a party at Meatpacking club the Lively on Saturday, April 30 (and all the aforementioned artists will also hold discussions about their work). Other rare bookings include a performance by gothic vocal talent Diamanda Galas, a cross-generational bill bringing together rising jazz star Kamasi Washington and legends Pharoah Sanders and the Sun Ra Arkestra, and a gospel–house-music mash-up featuring minimal techno innovator Robert Hood. If you’re unfamiliar with some or all of that, consider the series your chance to discover new sounds. Here are our favorites from the 20-event calendar to get you started.
Red Bull Music Academy takes place Friday, April 29–Sunday, May 22. Visit the official website for the full schedule, locations and prices.
Long before Drake discovered the work of Skepta and the Boy Better Know crew, U.K. MC-rappers were mixing elements of drum and bass, U.K. garage and dancehall to create grime. Along with legends such as Wiley and Kano, Rascal laid the foundation for the genre with his 2003 Mercury Prize–winning debut, Boy in da Corner, which features classics like “I Luv U” and “Wot U On?” Here, Dizzee performs it in full for the first time ever.
Soulful singing enigma Anohni (formerly Antony) gives her new album, Hopelessness, the grand audio-visual presentation its massive sounds suggest. The clangorous electronic coproduction by cutting-edge beatmaker Hudson Mohawke and experimentalist Oneohtrix Point Never underscores its dark currents—drone warfare, state-sponsored torture, global warming—while allowing for shimmers of beauty and light, which are sure to manifest themselves inside Park Avenue Armory’s spacious drill hall.
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