Chris Korda’s latest EP “Primitive Man” interrogates the myth of human superiority and the barbarism that flows from it. Despite our current obsession with social justice, gross inequality persists between humans and non-humans. Our species supremacy echoes Biblical edicts to subdue the earth and have dominion over all its creatures. Many animals experience emotions identical to ours, including pleasure, pain, comfort, fear, curiosity and boredom, but that hasn’t stopped us from oppressing and murdering animals on an inconceivable scale.
The title track ironically contrasts primitive and civilized ways of life with sharp lines such as “No more swinging from trees, you’re done with that / Sit down, watch TV, drink beer and get fat.” “Lunch Break” is a thunderous breakbeat reworking of Korda’s pro-vegan anthem “Fleshdance.” The remaining tracks are instrumentals subtly influenced by traditional Turkish music. Korda pioneered complex polymeter—the use of multiple time signatures simultaneously—in electronic dance music, and “Primitive Man” continues that tradition, but in a stripped-down, minimal way.
Chris Korda is playing live at Houghton Festival this weekend. Her retrospective The (Wo)Man of the Future – ran from June to September last year at Goswell Road in Paris and engaged with her music, art and activism. You can read the Frieze review here and there will be a book released later this year. In September this year – again at Goswell Road – she is exhibiting a synesthesia machine. While in October she is exhibiting CoE banners in After Laughter Comes Tears at MUDAM (Luxembourg).
artist Chris Korda
title Primitive Man EP
label YYK No Label
date 8th September 2023
format digital | vinyl
Tracklist:
A1. Primitive Man
A2. K35
B1. Lunch Break
B2. SAZ