this 60-minute mixtape consolidates the findings of my latest research dedicated to works 1990-2013 bodied by the politic voice, mind and unmistakable sensuality of vanessa daou, the new york-based intellectual, poet, song/writer, singer, sage, fellow vassar alum and just overall muse boss

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yin side (leaves of love)
"for seeing the world with heightened acuity"

100% daou. an essential oil blend of the effortless, the sexual, the intellectual. tested and diffused at sexy café. feel and dance

vanessa daou - a thousand licks
the snapshots foundation - vanessa daou interview part one [excerpt]
the daou - the way
vanessa daou - flower of my fears
critical rhythm, jango thriller & vandal - it could not happen (essential trancehall mix)
vanessa daou - lovechild
vanessa daou - honey in a jar
vanessa daou - becoming a nun 2.0 (koded vocal dub mix)
vanessa daou - one thing i'm missing 
vanessa daou - goodbye

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Upon hearing Danny Tenaglia's Valley Of The Daou Mix of Vanessa Daou's "Two to Tango" (1996) for the first time on Side A: Trippin' On Love of @octoocta's Love Hypnosis Vol. 2 Mixtape (2022), I was entranced by its lyrics and vocals alike. This led me to spend some time researching the library of works by @vanessadaou, someone whose effortless expression of the word I've come to deeply resonate with in the past year, and to whom I wholly dedicate this consolidation of findings.

On the subject of revolution, Daou says, "[h]ow we choose to interact with the world around us is and will always be an individual, often a personal decision, but the personal and political are ever-increasingly intersecting. There is no longer much, if any, separation between what happens outside in the world and what happens inside ourselves." Yin Yang Vol. 1 marks my third homemade tape to date. I'd like to trust each release (in every sense of the word) takes a stand *for* something in a nature rife with opposites and opposition, for there is always something to stand for, and to be said for. Right now, then or later, at base, is the matter of standing in solidarity with those down with the struggle for liberation. There really is no other way. Stop the genocide in Gaza now. End the siege on Gaza. Free Palestine. And free your fucking minds. Free us all—

yin yang vol. 1: vanessa daou ○ yin side (leaves of love)

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