Bronx-based Two Spirit cultural worker and composer Mobéy Lola Irizarry is gearing up to release a new album entitled Babylon Falls. A citizen of the Chickasaw Nation and a member of the Puerto Rican diaspora, Irizarry’s practice spans Salsa, Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba, Hip-Hop, Reggaeton, poetry and experimental electronics, bringing together a wide range of musical traditions. Originally conceived as a poetry album, and rooted in the Nuyorican Poets Movement and Blues Poet lineages, Babylon Falls also incorporates Chickasaw Oksola flute playing and electroacoustic sound manipulations, creating a musical language that reflects Irizarry’s expansive approach to tradition. Speaking about the ideas behind the record, Irizarry says:
“Salsa is both the genre of music and an aesthetic framework. Though it’s been codified as a consumable genre, Salsa was born from combining Rumba, Mambo, Jazz, Plena, Merengue, and other different kinds of music. My practice of mixing, say, Bomba with poetry and experimental electronics falls within that framework. It’s an aesthetic choice that I’m taking from my ancestors.”
There is also a strong sense of resistance and prospect running through Babylon Falls. Irizarry reflects on the decline of empire, with the album’s ten tracks weaving together revolutionary poetry and intimate love songs for friends, ultimately placing their hopes in a future shaped by queer and trans, Afro-Indigenous love and a renewed relationship with the natural world. Irizarry describes this vision:
“All concrete cracks. Its false illusion of permanency must be constantly maintained or the earth will retake it. This album is a witness to an empire’s crumbling, betting on the weeds cracking through to take us to a liberatory future.”
Babylon Falls is set for release on December 4th through New Amsterdam Records, and we can already get an exhilarating taste of what’s to come with ‘Land Defender’, the first single lifted from it. Written during the Toga Da Wôhnagabi (Stories for the Future) Indigenous Composer Residency at Banff Arts Centre, the track is inspired by Indigenous communities resisting the exploitation and destruction of their lands by corporations and governments. Paying tribute to anti-pipeline water protectors, those resisting the proposed Project Esencia development in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, and the Mohawk Warrior Society, ‘Land Defender’ is a celebration of all those working to defend the land, water and air for future generations. Featuring Cree rapper Big Tones, the single comes with an accompanying visualizer made by Lau Pat RA / Producciones Güey Karaya, and you can watch it below.
