“Others have called me a prophet, a seer, a god…I am none of these things.”
- LordRifa
What Lord Rifa is, is a master storyteller. In his debut album we are pulled through a carnival
ride of vignettes all thickly wrapped around the themes of lust and passion, death and rebirth,
redemption and salvation. As the truths are laid before us we are enveloped by textured sticky
guitar, traditional acoustic folk sounds, even a tender and tragic violin solo, woven into tribal
beats, clip ‘n’ trip edits, and keys.
We trip along the path as the stories unravel, the heartbeat quickens and then we smell the blood.
LordRifa is tireless in his carnivorous pursuit of all things musical. Not only are the tales
reminiscent of origin stories of biblical and Greco-Roman mythological proportions, but he masterfully
represents this in his secondary themes of the origins of music, incorporating African rhythms,
American bluegrass and samurai warrior calls, dragging the ancient music into our world.
Devolution as evolution. It’s the origin story of music as much as it is LordRifa’s. He is timeless.
He is all things. He is nothing. He merely is.
LordRifa deconstructs and in the rubble we are reborn.
