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Apr 07, 2022 By Mark Redfern Photography by Joshua Asante

Shreveport, Louisiana-based band Seratones are releasing a new album, Love & Algorhythms, on April 29 via New West. Now they have shared its last single, the disco-inspired “Pleasure.” Listen below, followed by the band’s upcoming tour dates.

In a press release, frontwoman A.J. Haynes says she was inspired by the writings of Afrofuturist author Octavia Butler, adding: “In ‘Pleasure,’ I wanted to emulate one of Butler’s aliens playing in a Giorgio Moroder Venutian soundscape, a gleaming creature designed for pleasure and multiplicity.”

Previously Seratones shared a video for the album’s lead single, “Good Day.” Then they shared its second single, “Two of a Kind,” which a press release said “contemplates how queerness blooms beyond binaries and borders.” The album also includes “Dark Matter,” which they shared last year prior to announcing the album.

Haynes had this to say about Love & Algorhythms in a previous press release: “This is a protest album built on the form of protest I’m most interested in at this moment: getting present and sitting through difficult things with abundant joy.”

She added: “I’ve learned from watching my grandmother, my great-grandmother, from reading bell hooks and being immersed in Audre Lorde’s writings. There’s a whole lineage within Black feminism of centering pleasure and centering joy as a means to liberation, and I feel very privileged to have my art richly rooted in Black feminism.

“The really valuable part of the creative process is being present in challenging times, being able to tap into something that people need to hear versus something that is just for the sake of it,” she concludes. “There’s this American ideal of the pursuit of happiness, but I don’t want to chase happiness. I want bliss and wholeness. This world we’ve created, that we were able to discover through working through ourselves—I want to sit in this world longer.”

The band’s last album, Power, came out in 2019.

Seratones 2022 Tour Dates:

Apr 23 Waverly, AL - Standard Deluxe Festival
May 6 Baton Rouge, LA - Chelsea Live
May 7 New Orleans, LA - JAZZ Fest - New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
May 13 New York, NY - WFUV Party at City Winery Pier 57
Jun 1 Asheville, NC - Rabbit Rabbit *
Jun 3 Nashville, TN - Ascend Amp *
Jun 4 Wilmington, NC - Riverfront Amp *
Jun 5 Richmond, VA - Meadowbrook Park *
Jun 7 Burlington, VT - Shelburne Museum Green *
Jun 8 Portland, ME - Thompson’s Point *
June 9 Holyoke MA - Race Street Live
Jun 10 New Haven, CT - Westville Bowl *
Jun 11 Asbury Park, NJ - Stone Pony *
Jun 12 Bethlehem, PA - Steelstacks *
Sep 11 St. Louis, MO - Music at the Intersection

*notes dates with Fitz and The Tantrums + St. Paul & The Broken Bones

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