Almost 10 years ago Deja Carr -- better known as Mal Devisa -- shared her debut full-length album Kiid. She's put out quite a bit of music since then, but that music is sometimes difficult to find; her 2018 album Shade and the little Creature, for example, is no longer on the Mal Devisa Bandcamp page. But now it looks like Carr is ready to properly release a good chunk of her music. Today the Massachusetts experimental musician has announced what press materials call a "reintroduction" with a career-spanning compilation album called Palimpsesa. As a preview, she's sharing two previously-unreleased songs, "Old Intro" and "Skyline Arms-Reach Out."
The 29-track Palimpsesa features some of Carr's earlier Mal Devisa songs plus a handful of previously unreleased material that's been newly mixed and fully remastered. Together, the two songs released today offer a good summary of her sound, with "Old Intro" informed by classic boom-bap and "Skyline Arms-Reach Out" a haunting dose of minimal art-pop. Carr says of the songs in a press release:
"I owe the song "Old Intro" to the refusal to be taken seriously. When I was young I knew music was what I wanted to do but in the same breath I was kind of unruly in a funny way.I recorded this song in an era where I was listening to a lot of artists like Odd Future, Bajka, and Arts the Beatdoctor. To this day all of these artists still influence me in different ways. I'm really honest about my songs in general. The lyrics are teenagery and weird but it was a reflection of who I was at the time. This song teaches me the importance of doing your thing with your friends. And having it be nothing but that."
On "Skyline Arms-Reach Out" I shifted the lyrics and meaning to honor Blackness in all of its forms. I had this existential moment where I felt like I needed a song about Black joy and love and resilience. The song feels rich in emotion, exactly how I felt in the moment."
Listen to those and see the full Palimpsesa tracklist below.
TRACKLIST:
01 “You Are My Sunshine”
02 “Next Stop”
03 “Icarus-Breakthrough”
04 “Vicious Nonbeliever”
05 “New Eardrums”
06 “Dominatrix”
07 “Old Intro”
08 “Never See Me Do It”
09 “Crowd Pleaser”
10 “The Room Is Spinning”
11 “Contracts”
12 “Skyline Arms-Reach Out”
13 “Fire”
14 “You Are All That You Need”
15 “To Be Unwilling”
16 “I Could Tell”
17 “The Skies”
18 “Dangerous”
19 “If You Are Waiting”
20 “Shomberg Isn't the Place”
21 “Slept On”
22 “Rum”
23 “O Ivory
24 “Sunrise
25 “My Potential
26 “You Go To My Head
27 “Forest
28 “Raw As The Hands Of The Sun
29 “Forget That I
Palimpsesa is out 7/30 via Topshelf.
