On their self-titled album, which dropped back in May, New York funk octet EMEFE took inspiration from the autobiography of Jacques Lusseyran, a blind French resistance fighter who develops a deep inner life despite the world around him. Such high-minded explorations of funk puts EMEFE in good company: despite what Andre 3000 might tell you, Prince and Fela Kuti proved you don’t have to choose between listening and dancing.
So it’s no surprise that EMEFE proudly list Fela and Prince among their chief influences. On new single “Torture,” which we’re proud to be premiering today, the group stack a fat, stabbing horn section against a shuffling beat that sounds like it could’ve come from a more comfortable version of Fela’s Shrine. “Torture, power through the pain / Pleasure, this is just the game we play,” Miles Arntzen sings in a purple falsetto. There’s a bit of Let’s Dance–era Bowie in there, too, in Doug Berns’ haughty vocal harmonies.
But “Torture” is no mere pastiche—pleasurable though the idea of Prince jamming with Fela Kuti and David Bowie might be. instead, it comes across as fresh and unified, very much a product of its own time. Give it a listen below.
