Over 50 artists have come together for Merciless Accelerating Rhythms: Artists United for a Free Palestine, a compilation released on today’s Bandcamp Friday that benefits Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) and Palestine Legal. The comp was put together by Brooklyn label HATETOQUIT and band Hiding Places, and it features songs by Phil Elverum (The Microphones, Mount Eerie), Little Wings, Magnolia Electric Company’s Jason Evans Groth, John Andrews & The Yawns, Fraternal Twin, TVOD, villagerrr, H. Pruz, hemlock, Ali Alrabeah, Mipso’s Libby Rodenbough, Super Infinity (Rob Grote of The Districts), and many others.
The album artwork was created by Rebecca Pempek, who’s also doing a print sale of this artwork and other pieces for today.
Here’s more info on the comp, via press release:
Based on June Jordan’s poem, “I Must Become A Menace to My Enemies,” dedicated by Jordan to Agostinho Neto, former President of The People’s Republic of Angola, the album’s title Merciless Accelerating Rhythms encapsulates a form of political organizing beyond “walking politely on the pavements,” and emphasizes “becom[ing] the action of [our] fate,” acting in a form of “retaliation.”
“I plan to blossom bloody on an afternoon
surrounded by my comrades singing
terrible revenge in merciless
accelerating
rhythms”“These are the words of anti-apartheid artist, leader, and poet, June Jordan; we as Artists United for a Free Palestine see retaliation as a diversity of tactics; as mutual aid; as solidarity with the people of Palestine; as direct action, if necessary; as an immediate end to the Israeli Occupation Force and a Free Palestine, forever; as a liberated world,” says HATETOQUIT and Hiding Places. “Our duty as artists has – and always will be – radical acts of care; the least we can do is send any aid possible to those facing genocide in Palestine, and money to folks on the frontlines of organizing action to get access to lawyers and legal support.”
You can download the comp at Bandcamp and stream it below.