Vernon Reid, the genre-blurring guitar visionary best known as founder of Living Colour, has unleashed his new solo album Hoodoo Telemetry via Artone/The Players Club Records. The album’s final pre-release single In Effigy delivers a thunderous industrial groove exploring the moral duality of war – both the aggressor and the victim’s perspectives colliding in sound.
Reid explains, “That’s my wife’s favourite song on the record. I wrote about the idea of two perspectives in a war. There’s a commander, weary after battle, standing with his weapon at his side. Below him lies an effigy, burned in his image. To those below, he’s not a hero, but a destroyer. Yet to himself, he’s simply following orders. He’s not political, he’s just caught in the machinery of conflict.”
That tension between humanity and duty, chaos and clarity runs throughout Hoodoo Telemetry, a 14-track journey that reasserts Reid as one of music’s most fearless boundary-pushers.
Earlier singles like Beautiful Bastard and The Haunting showcased the album’s stylistic breadth. On Beautiful Bastard, Reid paid tribute to doomed romance. “It’s not about gender,” he says. “It’s about those relationships where you know it’s doomed from the first kiss. Anyone who’s lived a full life will understand that.”
The Haunting dives into the spiritual funk realm, gliding over a slinky bassline as Reid channels the spirit of Prince, a musician he calls “a fellow chameleon.” Elsewhere, Bronx Paradox explodes with brass and breakbeats, honouring both the birthplace of hip-hop and DJ Logic, a longtime collaborator. “Everybody thought the Bronx was a wasteland,” Reid notes. “But from that so-called warzone came the final original music of the 20th century.”
Reid’s solo work has always existed in the crossfire of genres – from jazz to metal, punk to electronica. Born in London and raised in Brooklyn, his early career saw him cut his teeth in the city’s experimental music scene, performing with avant-garde icons like Ronald Shannon Jackson and Defunkt. His big break came with Living Colour, the genre-bending rock band he founded in 1984.
Reid describes Hoodoo Telemetry as a reflection of his restless creativity. “It’s a piece of my all-over-the-place mind,” he admits. “Some of these songs have been with me for years, others are brand new. Once I found my focus, I knew I had to do it now.”
The album’s closing track, Brave New World, captures Reid’s enduring curiosity about the human condition. “These songs look at the past through a different lens,” he says. “Then they ask, ‘Where is this going? Are we driving the bus or just passengers in a self-driving vehicle heading into the future?’ That’s what Hoodoo Telemetry is really exploring.”
Track Listing (CD/Digital)
Door Of No Return
Freedom Jazz Dance
Good Afternoon Everyone
The Haunting
Bronx Paradox
Or Knot
Dying To Live
Politician
Black Fathom Five
Beautiful Bastard
Meditation On The Last Times I Saw Arthur Rhames
My Little Zulu Babe
In Effigy
Brave New World
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