Kamalata is the politically charged postmodern folk rock electro musical name of independent artist, activist and scholar Neda Zahraie. Kamalata’s addictive melodies coupled with her oppositional poetics are the radiant response to the infinite melancholy of the generation born after 1980 to consumerism, war, inequality and exploitation. A traditional four-piece rock band of international artists, Kamalata’s music is anything but conventional—it is a rare glimpse at a profoundly unexplored marginalized possibility in modern music.

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Kamalata’s debut album Red Lips—sounds from the East Village of New York City—is a multicultural and multilingual sonic soundscape stretching the limits of American folk to classical Persian, punk rock and House music. In songs like "Agent Orange" and "Red Lips," the right to self-sovereignty, the class system, and the condemnation of imperialist wars are voiced, while songs like "Dirty," "Big Boy Lullaby," "Sabalon" and "Crack Fatso Retardo" play with the themes universal alienation along with mesmerizingly fresh musicality. The two electronica tracks on the album, a nod at Kamalata’s years spent in the underground dance scene are, "Das Apple," a groovy song that lyrically plays with the idea of submissiveness and "Here and Now," an upbeat number that is invites us to seize the moment and celebrate the now.

 

The album is produced, recorded and mixed by Frederik Rubens. Jesse Murphy and Aaron Johnston from the Grammy nominee group Brazilian Girls are respectively heard on bass and drums while Gabriel Gordon (Meshell N’dgeocello, Laurie Anderson, T Bone Burnett, Natalie Merchant, ...) can be heard on the electric guitar. The album was recorded in Brooklyn’s Studio G, produced and mixed by Frederik Rubens and mastered by Dave McNair for digital and vinyl. All songs are available in high res 24 bit/96 K WAVs, CD and 180 gram (12") vinyl. 

Kamalata