Name: The Springing and the Dying by Fold
Duration: 1 min 19 s
Description: A short piece graced by Bertrand Russell, sporting a newly restored voice, expressing hopes that humanity will choose a path towards peace and joy instead of a 'dark and unnecessary doom.' The effect of the cutting edge AI restoration techniques used on all the vocals across this EP is to make voices of the past feel almost unnervingly present at times.

Westside Gunn - Broadway Joes (Tumblz Remix)

Celebrating 10 years of Fold

It’s been a decade since we first got the band together and released Mr President, We’re In Trouble. It’s been one hell of a journey. We looked back at all of the voices on our records and realised that two people have left us in that time: bell hooks (she insisted on lowercase) and Michael Ruppert.

Although they may seem an unlikely pairing, their solution for our troubled world was the same: communities sustain life. This was also our most important learning in all that time.

And so with joy and hope for the future we celebrate the lives and learnings of bell hooks and Mike Ruppert along with our own 10 year voyage. With elements of funk, dancehall and hip hop Sustain also sneakily incorporates bits from previous Fold tracks (for super fans only).

Lyrics

This is my answer to the question
Of why choose love?
Communities sustain life
Communities sustain life

Within a loving community
We sustain ties
By being compassionate
And forgiving
There is no better place
To learn the art of loving
Than in community

Marvellous, marvellous
Community
Marvellous, marvellous
Communities sustain life
Communities sustain life
Not nuclear families
Not the couple
And certainly not
The rugged individualist

Community
Is what will save us
You’re gonna have to do it
In conjunction with your neighbours
And your family
And the people around you
You will fail as a rugged individual
You will survive
As a member of a tribe
Or a family

When we do not choose love
It does not change the fact
That our existence on this planet
Is one of interdependency

What we spend
So much of our time doing
Is violating that interdependency

Communities sustain life
Community
Communities sustain life
Is what will save us
There is no better place
To learn the art of loving
Than in community

Sustain

Bodyhome explores the substitution of emotional truth with physical need with a confidence and maturity that make it hard to believe this is their first release.

Written, performed and produced by Oakley Riot.
Mixed by Ed Heaton.

Released by SUBTXT

Bodyhome

Oakley Riot - Bodyhome

UK indie pop artist Fran Minney releases brilliant new single  'Solo'  on Fri 27th Jan.

FFO: Lizzy McAlpine, Maggie Rogers, Phoebe Bridgers

As heard on Spotify editorials "Easy" and "Winter Chillout" with over 2 million streams

“Utterly breathtaking... You really need to take some time to just sit back and listen to the lyrics"
— Emily Pilbeam, BBC Introducing

“It all comes together so beautifully that you really do fall in love with this talent”
— Alfitude

“Dreamy, magical indie electronica… sublime music gold”
— The Unsigned Guide

Having released four successful singles and a retrospective collection in the past two years, singer-songwriter Fran Minney starts a new leg of her musical journey with the release of Solo. The single is the first from her new EP Conversations With Ground that explores the anatomy of a failing and the conflicting emotions that come with it. With Solo, Minney reunites with longtime collaborator Ed Heaton to create a track that is both upbeat but defiant mixing the singer’s earthy tones with her pop sensibilities. 
 
"I wrote Solo as an anthem for the new year, new me brigade who are finding themselves alone and need a reminder that not being tied to a romantic partner can be incredibly empowering and freeing. I wanted Solo to focus solely on the positives of being single without any bitterness. There is truly so much to celebrate and sometimes we need a reminder of that." — Fran Minney

Fran Minney creates a dreamy indie electronica soundtrack to the colourful woodland world she mentally inhabits. Minney’s 21songs are inspired as much by her mental health and the people she’s interacted with as they are by the daily paintings that the world makes for her. Though deeply personal, her songs have an emotional universality. Much of this comes from rich, honest vocals which manage to be haunting, powerful and intimate all at the same time.

Fran’s music has been featured on Spotify Editorial playlists ‘Easy’ and ‘Winter Chillout’ and her single ‘Normal’ has garnered almost 2 million streams. Minney has been featured on the cover of The Crack magazine, received support from Launchpad and Help Musicians UK; performed live on BBC Yorkshire; and also performed on Made in Leeds (TV). She performed at Thomann’s Music Never Stops Festival 2020, Long Division 2019, has headlined Leeds’ highly regarded 360 Club.

"Solo" will be released on brand new and exciting, multi genre UK label SUBTXT.  With the core ethos of “dig deep, shout loud”, their aim is to create a platform for artists that want their music to question, interrogate and challenge as well as delight and entertain. In times when opinions are divided, SUBTXT fundamentally sees music as a vehicle for conversation, enlightenment and hope from a diverse range of voices in sonic landscape made from belief.

Solo

Fran Minney - Solo

Fold return with a vengeance on this no-holds-barred appeal to our humanity. Mixing hip-hop, pop & cinematic influences with the words of late visionaries Mike Ruppert & author Douglas Adams, Fold's new single demands that we take a good, long look at ourselves and confront the devastating consequences of failing to prioritise a sustainable existence.

“We don’t have to save the world; the world is big enough to look after itself. What we need to be concerned about is whether or not the world we live in will be capable of sustaining us in it.”
— Douglas Adams

Who the Hell Are We? follows on the heels of Fold’s October 2022 single Sustain which was playlisted on Spotify’s Fresh Finds Jazz, given spins on BBC 6 Music, Amazing Radio & many other regional stations, and featured by Indie Shuffle among others.

Who the Hell Are We? will be released on brand new and exciting, multi genre UK label SUBTXT. With the core ethos of “dig deep, shout loud”, their aim is to create a platform for artists that want their music to question, interrogate and challenge as well as delight and entertain. In times when opinions are divided, SUBTXT fundamentally sees music as a vehicle for conversation, enlightenment and hope from a diverse range of voices in sonic landscape made from belief.

Who the Hell Are We?

Fold - Who The Hell Are We?

Leeds-based Ghanaian expat Komla MC brings his unique West African flow to this playful, drill-inspired hip hop banger, seamlessly transitioning between English and Pidgin dialect from his ancestral lands.

Since 2019 Komla MC has released several explorative & well received hip hop collaborations with label mates Fold, receiving generous support from Amazing Radio. Komla’s previous incarnation Tiger Shadow was an alternative hip hop band that appeared on stages across Leeds including the well known 360 Club. Their tracks also made regular appearances on BBC Introducing West Yorkshire.

“I’m a true hip hop head who appreciates all directions that hip hop is moving in, drill in particular excites me because it sounds like a completely new genre. My lyrics usually focus on social commentary and this is no exception. What I’m referencing with the line ‘like sheep follow 2 by 2’ is that my contemporaries and I need to step in line—to recognise and appreciate hip hop’s new movements.  I’ve always made music for people who want something slightly different from what mainstream has to offer. Also, I grew up in Ghana where pidgin English is what most people speak. My thoughts are mostly in pidgin and mixing dialects in my rhymes offers a different dimension.”
— Komla MC

2 By 2

Komla MC - 2 By 2

Who The Hell Are We?

Fold address the silencing of dissent on soulful new single The Painful Truth with bell hooks, out Fri 26 May

The phrase “truth is an endangered space” opens Leeds-based Fold’s latest piece, voiced by the late bell hooks and in tribute to her. Using delicately paced soundbites from the visionary author, The Painful Truth reflects a society in which dissenting voices are being deliberately and increasingly stifled. Yet there is hope because, as hooks states, ‘people are really hungry for truth.’ That sense of hope is brought to life by a beautifully cinematic, jazz-funk soundscape with horn arrangements by long-time Fold collaborator Emma Johnson.

“We are continually impressed by bell hooks’ observations and with each new discovery we feel her loss more keenly. Like me, bell hooks was also a New Yorker. She was a professor at CUNY where my father taught for most of his career. This piece uses excerpts from a 2002 interview that triggers memories for me of how it felt to live in post-911 New York / USA. Dissident voices were ruthlessly silenced. Powerful forces took full advantage of the hurt and fear that people were experiencing. What bell hooks observed at that time was the beginning of a trend that has only increased since. We are now very much, as she puts it, ‘in danger of silencing any form of speech that goes against what is perceived to be the status quo.’ This is the perspective that we want to amplify right now.“
— Seth Mowshowitz, Fold

'The Painful Truth' is also released in solidarity with all brave souls speaking truth to power, often at great personal cost. This goes out to the whistleblowers, journalists, academics and each person who is brave enough to deliver the necessary truth in everyday life, even when it is most uncomfortable.

LYRICS

Truth
Is an endangered space
Truth
Is associated with the painful
That should not be spoken

And it becomes hard to get people to value
Speaking freely

Dissident speech
The painful truth
That will to silence is growing
But I see the hope
People are really hungry
For truth
Hungry
For truth

We are in danger
Of silencing
Any form of speech
That goes against
What is perceived to be
The status quo

Truth
Is an endangered space

People are hungry for
Provocative voices
That go to the heart of the matter
Because they want answers
To the things that they are
In crisis about

Dissident speech
The painful truth
Is not valued in our nation
But I see the hope
People are really hungry
For truth
Hungry
For truth

The hope that I feel
Within my own self
And with other people
Is that hunger for truth
And for ways to live our lives
More fully

Dissident speech
The painful truth
There are things we have to say
That will be wounding
But I believe in
The outrageous pursuit of hope
A society that is full of promise
And possibility
People are really hungry
For truth
Hungry
For truth

And its that hunger
That keeps a place
For the dissenting voice
That keeps the place for speaking freely

The Painful Truth

Leeds-based Ghanaian Komla MC helps take Drill in new directions with single ‘Save Yourself’, out July 21

FFO: Yaw Tog, Jay Bahd, Kwaku DMC, Kofi Jamar

As heard on Spotify Editorial playlists Asakaa and New Music Friday Ghana

Komla MC is part of a global movement taking Drill in new directions and reaching wider audiences in the process. On Save Yourself he uses his unique Ghanaian flow—sprinkled with Pidgin dialect—to maximum effect, underpinned by a melodious hook rooted in African Gospel. There’s no violence here, only playful battle raps & social commentary; a refreshing blend of humour & conscience. The instrumentation also breaks out of norms with a haunting Cor Anglais (possibly a Drill first!) & more organic drum sounds.

“The title is self-explanatory. We’re living in troubled times. There is no saviour coming to rescue you. Do what you need to do to save yourselves people! On a lighter note, I’m spitting my battle raps and
letting the other rappers know what’s up.“
— Komla MC

LYRICS

Save yourself
Brother save yourself
Sister save yourself
Everybody save yourself
Everybody save yourself

Firm grip, gorilla feet 
90s memories, bittersweet 
Symphony, rappers too phony 
Shucking and jiving on the TV
I’m not with that gangsta malarkey 
Free world, do what you do by all means
Dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s
On my p’s and q’s Komla MC

Higher than a kite or satellite
What dem a do? What dem a try? No fright night
Homeboy spit right or quit like
This beat here is what we quite like
Get in line to shake your behind
He's inclined to wine to unwind
Every man has his price
Chale don’t you go crossing that line 

This one’s preserved in brine
If you hear this prayer gimme a sign
This is Mr Hyde
Dr Jeckyll? He died from all the pride 
Allies don’t tell lies
Unless it’s behind your back… oh hi
Organic flow,  lo-fi
Music dey online make you go buy

Quality over quantity
Don’t relate to your lyrical fallacy
We ain't part of no scene
There ain't another MC like me
I don’t get gully with the toolie
Not preferred method for yours truly
Two heads are better than one, two 

Save yourself
Brother save yourself
Sister save yourself
Everybody save yourself
Everybody save yourself

Sister save yourself
Brother save yourself
Everybody save yourself
Everybody save yourself 

Who doesn't have issues in this world? You? 
Know we all the same inside true
Truth, talk about some real life issues 
Nothing better put the mic down dude 
Pro flow on the megaphone 
With more horror horoscopes
With spirits from the Gold Coast
Feel the vibe, feel the Holy Ghost

Created my own lane
You copy each other you all sound the same
It’s a real shame
Good Lord Sugar (ei!), no buga buga (ei!) 
No German Luger (ei!), no Freddy Krueger (ei!) 
This one is harder than a mother
If your mama is the type I had in Accra
There's other dimensions to the picture 
Flavour of what we bring ya

Another brother shot 
And then they found themselves in the cop shop
In there I don’t think there's pork chops 
Do the sing and dance, do the foxtrot 
My sentiments are echoed 
Carry my rhyme book, wheelbarrow 
Yep, wordplay that's my ammo 
Sub-zero flow it be too cold 

The pro who flow so
The bros who don’t know
The foes who so slow
Karate not Tae Bo
Different strokes for different folks
If you’re in self-destruct mode
Instead of giving you hope
There's always somebody giving you rope

Save yourself
Brother save yourself
Sister save yourself
Everybody save yourself
Everybody save yourself

Sister save yourself
Brother save yourself
Everybody save yourself
Everybody save yourself I say

Brother save yourself
Sister save yourself
Everybody save yourself
Everybody save yourself

Save Yourself

Komla MC - Save Yourself

A short piece graced by Bertrand Russell, sporting a newly restored voice, expressing hopes that humanity will choose a path towards peace and joy instead of a 'dark and unnecessary doom.' The effect of the cutting edge AI restoration techniques used on all the vocals across this EP is to make voices of the past feel almost unnervingly present at times.

The Springing and the Dying

Supermodified

Amon Tobin - 4 Ton Mantis (Original HQ)

By incorporating a wide range of voices including MCs, poets, historical speakers and singers into their music, Fold aim to amplify humanitarian perspectives and critical reflections on today’s world. Through doing so they also hope to help keep spaces open for speaking freely and truthfully. Their sound is similarly wide-ranging, from jazz-funk through Brazilian, psyche, hip-hop and downtempo.

Starting in 2012 they’ve managed to cultivate a decent reputation in the underground British music scene. Their music is played on BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music, Radio X, Amazing Radio and stations across the world. Indie Shuffle are big fans and they’ve had features in The Times, The Guardian and The NME. They’ve played shows all over the UK including a live session for Lauren Laverne on BBC 6 Music.

Fold believe that the answers to a sustainable future lie in prioritising the value of life over profits in all decisions. They believe that the success of our species has not been driven by ‘survival of the fittest’ but instead by ‘survival of the most cooperative.’ Our ability to act cooperatively to our mutual benefit, facilitated by our loving natures, is the true foundation of society. These beliefs, are what they bring to every record and every performance.

The Springing and the Dying

Fold

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