Birth Becomes Her by Ange Madame

For Ange Madame on her new record Birth Becomes Her, rebirth represents a deepening of all kinds of sensation and knowledge, from the scalding burn of sympathetic pain to the warm comfort of interpersonal intimacy. Madame, who may be known (and is still found on some streaming platforms) by her old alias Angel-Ho, quantizes traditional African percussion, jazz wind instruments, haunting gospel choruses, and impassioned spoken word into an experimental dance framework. Like the previous iteration of this artist, the music remains delightfully absurd even when tackling serious issues, but that sheath of innocence disappears in favor of an extra dimension of understanding. Rather than destroying this old world of innocence, new knowledge symbolized by dark vocal inflections and cavernous spaces integrate flawlessly with the old self, creating an entity with deep understanding who still laughs in the face of adversity.