Kelela Mizanekristos has built a discography that is both map and territory: from that “Cut 4 Me” (2013) which launched her from the ashes of the Fade To Mind collective, through the EP “Hallucinogen” (2015) produced by Arca, up to the official debut “Take Me Apart” (2017) and the sumptuous “Raven” (2023), she has redefined the boundaries of alternative R&B with a coherence that few can match. In the meantime, his name has bounced between illustrious collaborations (Danny Brown, Solange, Gorillaz) and even an acoustic interlude at the Blue Note in New York, immortalized in “In The Blue Light” (2025), which revealed his jazz backbone and love for folk and songwriting.
With “New Avatar”, the singer-songwriter takes a gamble that upon listening turns out to be an insanely right choice. The electronic coordinates that made her famous (future garage, UK bass, drum'n'bass, 2-step) are now crossed by distorted guitars, dreamy reverbs and an energy that smells of shoegaze and reimagines a Deftones-style nu metal produced by Warp. Kelela herself defined the album as an attempt to explore a “landscape that isn't typically addressed with R&B vocals”, and the success is surprising.
The opening with “Idea 1” is a manifesto. Astral synths and scratching guitars. It's a beginning that promises chaos, but the album instead chooses a more subtle path and with “Point Blank” transforms frustration into a bouncy grooves.
The most surprising moments come when the work indulges in its most radical deviations. “Linknb” is striking for its mixture of nu metal riffs and that syncopated drumming with clear hip-hop and funk references. “Don't Piss Me Off” is a minimalist anthem, while “New Life Forms” with Fousheé is a hypnotic duet that draws us into “The Bridge” with PinkPantheress, perhaps the most divisive moment: the production bends on a future garage which almost sounds too sweet for the vibe of the record. But it is also the moment in which Kelela demonstrates that she knows how to play with the rules of pop without betraying her vision.
Kelela's music exists in a liminal space where the club and the bedroom meet, where R&B becomes a container for all the influences that the African American diaspora has sown in contemporary music. As she herself said, “R&B is probably the most expansive genre in the world” and “New Avatar” is proof that guitars, distortions and shoegaze are a full part of it. This is a record that demonstrates how much R&B can be rock and how much strength it can have when it lets itself be contaminated. How powerful it is to choose not to choose.
07/15/2026
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
