Analogue Appreciation: Wesley Joseph

In his self-directed music video for a new song, ​‘Peace of Mind (ft. Danny Brown)’, Wesley Joseph mediates a warehouse fistfight-turned-rave, while three violinists score the disorienting affair, oblivious, from the sidelines. It’s as miscellaneous in content as it is coherent in effect – a story, however perplexing. The video is a perfect mirror of Joseph’s artistry. He pushes back against being categorised as a ​‘rapper’ – or boxed in at all – as he’s also a skilled singer, producer, director and photographer. 

Joseph stepped onto the music scene in 2020, with his breakout single ​‘Ghostin’, and although he has released two EPs and a cohort of arthouse music videos since, he’s held out five years before announcing his debut album. 

Now, the wait is over. Forever Ends Someday, Joseph’s first full-length record, marks a creative rebirth for the artist. The 13-track exploration of R&B, hip hop and soul sees stomping, abrasive bars create frictive nuance with buoyant falsetto. The disparate elements of Joseph’s record, which draws on the DIY flavour of early Soundcloud with bedroom beats and hometown features, culminates in a dynamic, layered sonic language. While ​‘Distant Man’ showcases Joseph at the acoustic intersection of soulful and hallucinatory, on ​‘Pluto Baby’, he struts ​“she come, then she go UFO” through a bellyaching hip hop ballad. 

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‘If Time Could Talk’ and ​‘July’ also get music videos by the 28-year-old auteur, which reveal a visual world of moonlit surrealism. In scenes from ​‘If Time Could Talk’ video, Joseph lays belly-up on the ceiling of a bare-bones nightclub watching sweaty bodies writhe on poles, then rips down a dusky backroad atop a bone-white grand piano travelling at top speed. ​“Would you feel the same if I told you / that I lie on the moon ​’til the morning?” he asks over the display. Joseph honed his directorial prowess during his time studying film in London a decade ago, and while his sound was forged alongside fellow Walsall native Jorja Smith – who features on the album – in their now-defunct hip hop collective, OG Horse. 

To celebrate the album’s release, and find out more about his visual and sonic influences, we invited Joseph to join us for Analogue Appreciation, our series celebrating tactile culture in a world of screens.

First pressing of my debut album 

My life’s work up until this point. Having the first one in the flesh is such a realisation of all the work that went into it. Extra special because one of my friends from back home took the photo on the cover. 

Postcard of barber shop in Birmingham

This postcard was always in my house. When I left Brum to move to London I took it with me – it reminds me of my mom and the house that I grew up in. I have no idea where it came from but it’s always been in my room. 

Sculpture my best friend bought for me

My best friend bought this for me when I first moved into my studio. It’s been sitting on my speakers for the past six years and has witnessed so many sessions. 

My first synth

This is my first synth, the DeepMind 12. I was a waiter when I first got it, I was struggling to afford studio gear and my grandma sent me half the money to buy it. It was pretty much the only synth I used on ULTRAMARINE. I literally learned this synth front to back. I’ll literally never get rid of it even if it breaks.

Signed Benjamin Zephaniah 

Legendary Birmingham poet Benjamin Zephaniah signed this book for my mum and she gifted it to me. He’s a crazy talented writer.

Forever Ends Someday is out now.

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