Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul – Topical Dancer
On Topical Dancer, Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul prove themselves a force to be reckoned with
Identity politics weigh heavily on Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul’s debut studio album, Topical Dancer. Both based in Belgium but with shared heritage from the French-Caribbean island of Martinique, the duo were paired together by the Dewaele brothers, aka Soulwax, and have previously released three EPs together on Deewee.
But on their first release as an official duo, the explorations of their mutual mixed heritage are both celebratory and complex. On Esperanto, Adigéry challenges ignorant remarks often made to those from mixed backgrounds in a tongue-in-cheek fashion: 'Don’t say ‘But where are you really from?’ / Say ‘I don’t see colour.’ And she continues exploring this idea on Blenda: ‘Don’t sound like what I look like / Don’t look like what I sound like to them.’
Across Topical Dancer, Adigéry sings in English, Dutch, Creole and French and her mother Christiane Adigéry even features on one of its tracks, Ich Mwen. The album feels as much a personal exploration of Adigéry’s own heritage and life experiences as it does a commentary on social attitudes. But, most importantly, it establishes Adigéry and Pupul as a real force to be reckoned with.
Listen to: Blenda, It Hit Me, Reappropriate