Black femininity blooms in a sonic garden – with a sadness too beautiful to be irredeemable

One might be forgiven for thinking that marcy firelife’s newest release is an ode to the British art-jazz singer of the 90s with its name, sade’s garden. Though that artist’s influence on modern electronic music is sprawling and heavily understated – and marcy certainly does pull inspiration from her – this naming is a bit more personal.

“Sade is my mother’s middle name and I am the flower that grows from her garden.”

This is not to say that this North Carolina artist doesn’t hold her musical inspirations close over these seven tracks. So close in fact, that women who no doubt had a major influence on her emerge on this release, in dialogue with her, nestled within the sonic greenery that she has crafted.

Blessing brings about an unsure descent down into that undergrowth, where, even early on through the bushes, we can see marcy’s special space take shape. Driven voices glow from within, cuttings from a documentary on the predominantly black, lesbian club scene in LA. Shakedown through the shrubs.

From empowerment to ennui. Making sadness graceful is a difficult thing to do. But in many of the instalments here, marcy has more than achieved it. The swirling heaven is at once optimistically wistful and devastating; some vocal tones drift out and some call out in a tearful way. But their receptacle, this surging electronic ambience cradling the voice, is breathtaking. This sadness is too beautiful to be grief. Too well-formed to be irredeemable.

dark rain’s keys land with a sorrow so vibrant, it’s as if we watch a flower in this garden thriving and withering at the same time. It, and forgiveness with you that follows, are content to meander, the music finding itself, much like her influence, Alice Coltrane.

The way instrumentation and vocals come together in this garden is effortless, presenting a clear dialogue between her and these inspirations.

Her previous release, october first, certainly gestures toward an ability to craft sonic accompaniment to source material. On the 2025 release, listeners can hear glimpses of amazing melodic alchemy. There too is this feeling of empowerment, powerful singers and black girl groups are picked up out of restrained pop compositions and dropped into epic electronic tracks.

But here, fizzling electronics sometimes leaning into the maximalist explosions of Chuquimamani-Condori have cooled in the shade.

Her black femininity guides her to construct melodic sculptures around the voices that inspired her, her identity intricately linked with them as well as with her family.

Even as the garden lies in ruins, it feels impossible not to stop and appreciate it, to stay for as long as possible before it fades away.