Kelela song “Contact” makes me wanna buss it in front of a Tekken arcade machine

Kelela’s dutty and depressed g’yalentine’s album Raven is mere weeks away, and she’s dropping singles left and right. The latest being the fourth single, “Contact”. As was the case with “Happy Ending”, this is a song for the girls who wanna get down whilst high. Or for the boring nerds like me, whose poison for “Contact” would be dancing up on a Tekken 2 arcade machine. Because that’s what the beat is giving.

“Contact” is produced by LSDXOXO, who also remixed “Truth or Dare” on Kelela’s remix album TAKE ME A_PART, THE REMIXES. And Lady Gaga fans with taste will also recognise the name, as LSDXOXO also remixed “Alice” on Dawn of Chromatica.

And it also has a music video, which is shot on a camera phone in Kelela’s hotel room. Probably because “Washed Away” ate into the budget for all of Raven’s music videos. But it works though. One thing Kelela gon’ do if nothing else is sell the vibe. I will absolutely be bussin’ it to “Contact” at home, because I can’t stand the club, and I can’t stand people.

When Kelela had released “Happy Ending” I ran with a theory that her next album might possibly be more of a follow-up of her remix album than the original studio album which spawned it. Then I caught a glimpse of what Kelela had written in her album inlay, which basically was her pointing at me like...

And now she drops “Contact” and I’m just...

Let me just say this. All of the singles Kelela has released from Raven thus far have been great. But “Washed Away” has been my favourite. Until now. “Contact” is now in the number 1 position on my Raven singles leader board. And not that anybody cares, but I’mma tell you why. It fuses the vibes of both “Washed Away” and “Happy Ending” (which is in position number 2 on my leader board).

The tempo of “Contact” picks all the way up right at the end, which means its probabaly going to mix into the next song on the album, which is “Fooley”. That shit better have these thighs shaking.

With club music not only making a comeback on the charts worldwide as of late, but Black women publicly reclaiming it, Kelela is casually on time and bang on trend.

Club music has always been in rotation in the Random J verse, because I frequently listen to video game soundtracks from the early 2000s (Ridge Racer, Tekken, Jet Set Radio, Tobal No. 1, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike) when club music was popular with Japanese video game music composers in the beat ‘em up and racing game genre. Also, living in the UK, club music has been a continual mainstay on the radio and the charts.

I’ve always felt that Kelela could pop off in Europe due to her club records being far more in tune with trends and tastes in countries such as the UK, France and Germany. “Rewind” could have been a smash hit in the UK EASILY if it were pushed here. “Happy Ending” coulda popped off here too. And the same goes for “Contact”. So I would urge Kelela to consider doing some promo across Europe for Raven, and adding a couple more European dates for her Rave:n tour.

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💿 Album reviews: TAKE ME A_PART, THE REMIXES | Take Me Apart
📺 Other Raven music videos: On the Run | Happy Ending | Washed Away