Ibeyi – “Rise Above” (Black Flag Cover)
“Rise Above,” the opening track from Black Flag’s 1981 debut album Damaged, has been covered many times since its release 41 years ago. It’s been covered by punk bands (Misfits), metal bands (Sepultura), and, somewhat famously, by the noodly indie rock experimentalists Dirty Projectors. And now it has been covered by Ibeyi for their upcoming album Spell 31.
Ibeyi’s “Rise Above” cover, which features a verse from the East London rapper Berwyn, is in keeping with the duo’s jazzy, downtempo, beat-driven approach. You could almost hear it as an extension of the way Dirty Projectors transformed the song, though twin sisters Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi DÃaz have given the song a different kind of idiosyncrasy that reminds me of Björk doing trip-hop.
A statement from Lisa-Kaindé:
We read the lyrics and we immediately felt their relevance to how we felt about the world in its current state. We got to work on the melody and had the full song done in 5 minutes. Jorja Smith heard the track and told us we had to get BERWYN on the song. We had him by the studio to listen to the full album. I left to make tea, upon returning to the studio BERWYN had already written his verse for “Rise Above,” before he had even finished listening to the album. We knew we had something special, what a gift!
Listen below.
Spell 31 is out 5/6 on XL.