"What does it mean to compose music today? Is composed music a creative act or a procedural action? An original expression or a contextual response? A conceptual performance or an industrial gameplay? And if it is one or the other, how do we perceive it as positive or negative? I'm perennially excited by these notions - especially when a film score sends my head spinning into their interrogative possibilities. Michael Uzowuru's score for the Prime mini-series Swarm (2023) spun my head considerably."
"Dre (Dominque Fishback) is a rabid fan of Ni'jah (a twisted simulacrum of Beyoncé and her Beyhive fanbase). She embarks on a killing spree, targeting people on social media who hate on Ni'jah. Graphically unsettling and tonally diffuse, Dre's picaresque journey turns Dante's Inferno upside down and pumps it full of Black aspirationalism to exploding point. Swarm pulls an even tighter focus on the sociocultural complexities of Black music, here pivoting from the hemmed-in machismo of trap and rap to the goddess hysteria of R&B and pop."
"Ni'jah's songs are sung and written by Kirby Lauryen, with selected co-writing and production spread between Glover and Uzowuru, among others. Childish Gambino touches are evident, and all tracks are skilled parodies of digital soul, gushing with stacked harmonies. "Something Like That" collapses digital simulations of vocal cooing with gospel-tinged organs and percussive thrumming a la Kate Bush's ethnographic backings. Kirby's AutoTuned lines layer female and male tones in a heady pansexual mix."
Swarm centers on Dre, an obsessive fan of pop icon Ni'jah, whose online-fueled rage catalyzes a violent campaign against critics. The series reframes Black musical cultures by shifting focus from trap's machismo to R&B and pop's idol worship. Ni'jah's music, performed and written chiefly by Kirby Lauryen with production input from Donald Glover and Michael Uzowuru, operates as affectionate parody and sonic pastiche. Tracks combine stacked harmonies, gospel-tinged organs, AutoTune layering, Timbaland-esque production flourishes, microhouse textures and vocoder play, creating an ambivalent soundtrack that interrogates composition as both creative expression and cultural machinery.
Read at The Wire Magazine - Adventures In Modern Music
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