Kele Fleming shifts into a new gear with her latest genre-blending single and video The Great Acceleration (Devours Remix) — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
Although the B.C. singer-songwriter specializes in vulnerable folk lyrics and rock melodies, the EDM world continues to favour her music, remixing her raw singles as bass-heavy beats. The Great Acceleration (Devours Remix) is the newest radical and rewarding reworking of one of Fleming’s favourites.
“This is a love song for end days,” she explains. “Love feels big and important and worth fighting for in this song. The tempo quickens like a heartbeat accelerating. The intensity of the music heats up like an irresistible attraction. The vocal lines intertwine, finally, like lovers.”
The track comes from Fleming’s 2020 album The Song I’ll Write for My Whole Life. The original recording focuses on strummed bass by Aaron Trory opening the impactful tune about climate change before Fleming launches into her ethereal lyrics:
“If these are end days
I want to stay and watch the world decay
I can’t do it alone
I want you in my arms as I get carried away
I’m gonna have my say.
It’s a quickening (love is our best plan).”
Fleming’s music, laced with intelligent, conscious, and thought-provoking lyrics, has helped her become a cool presence in today’s music industry as it progresses toward a more diverse and inclusive landscape. Thanks to remixers who deconstruct and revamp her work, Kele is garnering streams and DJ club play around the world, reaching an entirely new generation and audience. And giving new meanings to the tracks — while the original Great Acceleration features a constant bass hum, the electronic remix uses a synth loop, tapping into the apocalyptic message of the track.
“In 2019, I was hearing so much about the fires raging around the globe,” Fleming says. “I was reading and researching climate science and the Anthropocene (the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems). I stumbled upon an intriguing concept, the great acceleration. It’s the period, since 1950, of the rapid rate of increase in human activity and technological advancement and its impact on the Earth.”
The verses echo the dual metaphor of a dying world during a time of unwavering love. “As progress accelerates, so does our impact on the Earth’s geology and ecosystems. To me, it’s a metaphor for love. If we can get as carried away by our love of life & one another as we do for technology & the rush for progress, we might have a chance. We have time (but not much) to turn things around.”
Watch the video for The Great Acceleration (Devours Remix) above, check out more of Kele Fleming’s music below, and find her at her website, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
