The Buttshakers
The rewind button brings the tape back several times and, with it, The Buttshakers. From the tape to the studio, the décor changes to an America lost in its own reverie, the America that Ciara Thompson left in 2008 to settle in Lyon, France. Untethered from the idealistic veil of her childhood, this America, her America, now appears in its crudest reality: disfigured by violence and racism, the streets transformed into a make-shift shelter for those without a home.
Black Lives Matter, Not In My Name, #metoo and other red flags light up the soundboard without stopping this desperate and breakneck race to darkness. Yet, when everything darkens, there is always an afterglow that cannot be extinguished, that final ember capable of rekindling on its own a brazier of hope. This is soul music.
Arcadia, “the land of delights,” a perfect world as described by the poet Virgil. This land where all is beauty and perfection becomes, for The Buttshakers, the place to rally, to unite, a moment of resilience. Not a place of retreat, an escape from reality, but a goal towards which to reach.
On their previous album, Sweet Rewards, The Buttshakers offered a soft light on the romantic side of soul. With Arcadia, they explore its conscious face. The one which, in the heyday of the 70's, shone thanks to the albums of Gil Scott-Heron, Marvin Gaye or Curtis Mayfield.
Creation influenced by the political and social events of our times. The form that meets the content in a music that is visceral and raw yet full of finesse and delicacy.