Across the sprawlingly verdant soundscapes of her newest album Lotus Glow, artist/producer Adi Oasis (f.k.a. Adeline) cultivates an ardent vision of herself. She has also announced new tour dates including a night at the Lodge Room in Los Angeles on Mar. 25. Her reinvention began with a change in moniker but has since assisted in evolving nearly every aspect of her music. From its luxuriantly retro funkiness to its vocalization against racism and gun violence — the album highlights her perspective as a Black woman and immigrant living in America. But it also overflows with a buoyant and unabashed intimacy that’s soaked into its groovy melodies via Adi Oasis’ dreamily dulcet words.
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Every track on Lotus Glow is a radiant jam — a sublime collection of lambent instrumentals that recall R&B and funk classics. There are the brassy tones and ethereal flute spiralings that effuse from “Get it Got it”; an incandescently elastic bass line on “Red To Violet,” which also features the transcendent vocals of Jamila Woods; while the jumpy-rhythms of “U Make Me Want It” finds desirous fruition in their ecstatic punctuation of horns and dreamy piano keys.
The slow-burning ballad “Marigold” (feat. J. Hoard) struggles with expectations and parameters other people place around you, turning them into a powerful mantra of self-affirmation. It’s a song that stares right in the face of those who use racist and xenophobic language to control black and brown people. And it’s followed by the incisive lyricism of “Dumpalltheguns,” a biting track that sees only a perverse love of violence echoed in the words of people who fiercely cling to gun ownership as a right.
The fiery hype-anthem “Adonis” (feat. KIRBY) echoes the necessity of self-love voiced throughout the record, including on “Marigold.” Out of self-love grows a far more confident search for love outside one’s self. Songs like the endlessly groovy “Multiply” and “Naked” (feat. Leven Kali) are less than coy about their sensuous intentions, as Adi Oasis imparts the importance (and pleasure) of vulnerability between two lovers. Listening to the album, it’s hard not to feel the enraptured pull of Adi Oasis’ music. Out of its openness and vulnerability comes an invitation to do the same — all of it stemming from a desire to love more honestly and passionately.
See Adi Oasis live at the Lodge Room in Los Angeles on Mar. 25! See a full list of tour dates below!
Visit Adi Oasis on their website and Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.
Adi Oasis tour
3/15: Cambridge, MA @ The Middle East
3/16: Montreal, QC @ Le Belmont
3/17: Toronto, QC @ Allied Music Hall (@ Massy Hall)
3/24: San Diego, CA @ Casbah
3/25: Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
3/29: Oakland, CA @ Starline Social Club
3/31: Portland, OR @ The Jack London Revue
4/1: Seattle, WA @ Madame Lou’s
4/2: Vancouver, BC @ Fortune Sound Club
4/12: Detroit, MI @ El Club
4/13: Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village
4/14: Milwaukee, WI @ The Back Room
4/15: St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club
4/20: Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Made
4/21: Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Live
4/22: Washington, DC @ DC9
5/28: London, UK @ Cross the Tracks Festival
6/3: Margate, UK @ Soundcrash Funk & Soul Weekender Festival
6/9: Berlin, DE @ Quasimodo
6/10: Hamburg, DE @ ElbJazz Festival
7/2: East Sussex, UK @ Love Supreme Festival
Words: Steven Ward
Listen to Lotus Glow the new album from Adi Oasis below!
