nasimiYu – P O T I O N S

I’m new to nasimiYu but was immediately spellbound by her ekphratic, expressive poetry. Every single sound on this album was made by nasimiYu herself, although her unique use of forward vocals may be the standout, from the opening vocal-chords of “Watercolors,” layered with her own honeyed vocals singing melodies over doo-wop highs and lows.

“Immigrant Hustle” is another stunning feat of auto-creation (as in self- there’s nothing robotic or inorganic on P O T I O N S), and the vibey “Practice” encourages the listener (or creator) to get in touch with the inner magic all humans are capable of cultivating.

With deep grooves, exuberant explorations of the self, and displays of joy as a radical tool of subversion, nasimiYu explores the concept of music as medicine, a healing salve after spending every day of summer 2020 organizing BLM protest events and cross-community collaborations in Brooklyn. The protest drum corps seeped into her songwriting, and through this it’s apparent that despite recording and spending the majority of the pandemic in isolation, a unified community sprung up around her, resulting in art and change.

After a seven-year writer’s block, the power of dance, nasimiYu’s earliest love and language, inspired nasimiYu to create these ceremonial dance songs for herself after a day of organizing and protesting, most apparently on “Ceremony.” As such, the vulnerability to be found on these songs – through solitude, through one of the darkest periods of our lifetime- is resplendent, and ultimately, an act of resistance itself.

“Musicmaking for me is both an anthropological study and an individual healing journey. It’s about tapping into all of the modalities of medicine that I’ve collected over the years to create a special prescription for what I’m facing at that time.”

P O T I O N S is out today. Get it on Bandcamp.