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about
~ All sales in July and August will be donated to the Equal Justice Initiative in the USA and Warriors Of The Aboriginal Resistance in Australia ~
New York singer and activist Danielle Ponder pairs up with Melbourne cinematic soul outfit Karate Boogaloo to deliver “Look Around,” a haunting reflection on the times we live in. “Look Around” was written in the studio with the band in the first days of 2020 when Danielle was in Melbourne, and at the time was conceived as a cry for help in the literal firestorm that was engulfing Australia. As 2020 progressed, the words that came in that moment of inspiration seemed to reflect each of the multiplying calamities this year has presented. When the death of George Floyd ignited indignation across the USA and the world, the lyrics to Look Around could not have been more apropos.
In Danielle’s words: “fires were raging through Australia and smoke covered the sky. It felt like all of our human sins had gotten the best of us and we were paying a price. I didn’t know that when I arrived back home in the U.S, the world would only get darker. I feel like my past self wrote this song for my future self knowing what was to come.” This song would help Danielle through what has been one of the most painful times to be Black in America.
Coming from different continents and different backgrounds was no obstacle to Danielle Ponder and Karate Boogaloo forming an immediate musical connection in the studio. Karate Boogaloo is a formidable studio band with years of studious focus learning soul music and its history. The instant connection is obvious on “Look Around”, as the band and Danielle sound like they’d been playing together for years rather than hours. Black Lives Matter, while being a US based movement, has a strong resonance in Australia where Indigenous people are massively over-represented in prison populations and in fatal interactions with the police. Thus, sales in July and August are going to be donated to the Equal Justice Initiative in the USA and Warriors Of The Aboriginal Resistance in Australia to give a little back to those communities from whom so much has been taken.
lyrics
So much trouble in this world
Mothers hold your little girl
Daddy sent so far away from home
Brothers bound to be a rolling stone
We all need love
Feeling all the pain in the world
Pride and evil seem to come first
Understanding is a rare thing
Lord knows we all want the same thing
Who knows the way to heal this land
Take me to the heart and soul of man
Watching all the fires as they burn
Money ain’t the thing that makes it turn
We all need love
Oohhh sweet mother
How I long, how I long to know you
Ohhh sweet lover
How I long, how I long to hold you
Ohhhh sweet mother
Ohh how long, how I long to know you
Ohhhh sweet mother
Ohh I’m crying out I’m crying out for you.
Look around, look around
Look around, look around
Look around, look around
Look around, look around
Look around, look around
Look around, look around
Holding all the weight of the world
credits
from Look Around / Little Bit,
track released July 24, 2020
Engineered by Bob Knob
Produced by Karate Boogaloo & Bob Knob
Mixed by Bob Knob & Henry Jenkins
Mastered by Lachlan Carrick
Like so many others, this came like a bolt out of the blue and, even though it's well before payday, I had to have this astonishing album on vinyl to prove it exists. The feel of the tunes makes me feel like the Impressions do, Curtis Mayfield, the big spaces and instinctive horns and stuff drifting in and out. Great grooves and I can see lots of ghosts nodding along to this with big smiles on their faces. At last! Anthony Cottrell
