For The Metal Voice the man on the street Kenny Kessel caught up with LIVING COLOUR’s guitarist Vernon Reid in New York.
When asked about a new Living Colour Album and when to expect it “The answer is yes. It’s going to be 2027 at the least. That be the soonest.”
When asked if Frankie Bello was helping them write the new music “Yes.”
When asked about his participation in BLACK SABBATH’s final show (Back to the Beginning) “Tom (Morello) reached out. We didn’t know that it was literally going to be the last Ozzy show. And I got a chance to do War Pigs (And Bark at the Moon) . It was beautiful. And with Rudy Sarzo who’s the best. Yeah. What a wonderful cat. Nice. Nice.”
The virtuosic musician Vernon Reid released his new solo album, Hoodoo Telemetry, on October 3rd via Artone/The Players Club Records. Listen to the final single to be taken from the album In Effigy.
In Effigy presents both the victim’s and the aggressor’s perspectives on warfare, set to thunderous industrial drums. Talking about the song, Reid says, “That’s my wife’s favourite song on the record. I wrote about the idea of two perspectives in a war. One is from the commander of a unit. There has been a battle, and he’s exhausted. He stands on top of the hill with his weapon at his side. In the valley below, he’s burnt an effigy, and to the people down there, he’s not a hero, he’s an asshole and a destroyer. But the warrior, he’s not an ideologue. He doesn’t have a bone to pick with these people. He’s not political. He essentially accepts the notion that there are no answers, only orders. So that song is really the two perspectives, of the warrior and those who consider themselves victimised by the warrior.”
In Effigy follows the previous single Beautiful Bastard. “The word ‘bastard’ is attributed to men,” he says. “But I wanted there to be an ambiguity: is this about a woman, is it about a man? And I firmly believe it could be about a woman, absolutely. I wrote this song as a homage to doomed romance. It’s not about gender – it’s about when you know it’s doomed from the first kiss. And anyone who’s lived a full life will know of what I speak!”
The overdriven funk bassline and glistening soul of The Haunting finds Reid tipping his hat to a fellow chameleon (“I’m a huge Prince fan and there’s some of who he was in that song’s DNA”), before the scratch ‘n’ glitch of the brass-driven Bronx Paradox salutes the New York neighbourhood’s greatest musical export. “I wrote that in tribute to DJ Logic,” he explains. “Everybody considered the Bronx a wasteland, a warzone. But with hip-hop, those kids created the final original music of the 20th century.”
If you’ve followed the beats of his half-century career, you’ll know Vernon Reid as an artist who paints in every colour. Depending on the era you dive into and the album on your turntable, you’ll find the New York polymath pinballing between jazz, metal, punk, funk, electronica and hip-hop, cutting heads with collaborators as eclectic as Mick Jagger and Public Enemy, endlessly shedding his skin yet always speaking his truth.
Track Listing – LP A1 Door of No Return A2 Freedom Jazz Dance A3 Good Afternoon Everyone A4 The Haunting A5 Dying To Live B1 Politician B2 Black Fathom Five B3 Beautiful Bastard B4 My Little Zulu Babe B5 In Effigy
Globally celebrated as a giant of the electric guitar (he was recently hailed by Rolling Stone as one of the top 50 players of all time), Reid’s Grammy Award-winning records with alt-rock trailblazers, Living Colour, still sound as fresh and fierce as when “Cult Of Personality” hijacked the Billboard chart in the late ’80s. But to take the pulse of the zeitgeist as he sees it – and hear his fearless musicality in microcosm – you need only drop the needle on his new solo album.
“Hoodoo Telemetry,” considers the 66-year-old of this kaleidoscopic 14-track opus, “is like a piece of my all-over-the-place mind. It took me a while to start this record because I was thinking about what I wanted to do next, managing my time with all my other projects. I was also in different spaces with these songs: some are new, others are reclamations of material from a long time ago. But suddenly, I found the focus and it was very clear to me: I gotta do this now.”
In hard times, Hoodoo Telemetry doesn’t have the answers. But to play Vernon Reid’s breathtakingly ambitious new album is to hear every shade of humanity and question where we are headed next. “These songs are looking at the past through a different lens, then looking forward,” he concludes. “Like, ‘Where is this going and how are we getting there? Are we driving the bus or are we passengers in this self-driving vehicle into the future?’
That’s the space that Hoodoo Telemetry is really exploring…”
The virtuosic talisman Vernon Reid has revealed a new song of his new solo album Hoodoo Telemetry, which will be released on October 3, 2025 on Artone / The Players Club Records. Listen to the second single ‘Beautiful Bastard’ HERE.
If you’ve followed the beats of his half-century career, you’ll know Vernon Reid as an artist who paints in every colour. Depending on the era you dive into and the album on your turntable, you’ll find the New York polymath pinballing between jazz, metal, punk, funk, electronica and hip-hop, cutting heads with collaborators as eclectic as Mick Jagger and Public Enemy, endlessly shedding his skin yet always speaking his truth.
Globally celebrated as a giant of electric guitar (he was recently hailed by Rolling Stone amongst the top 50 players of all-time), Reid’s Grammy Award-winning records with alt-rock trailblazers, Living Colour, still sound as fresh and fierce as when Cult Of Personality hijacked the Billboard chart in the late-’80s. But to take the pulse of the zeitgeist as he sees it – and hear his fearless musicality in microcosm – you need only drop the needle on his new solo album.
“Hoodoo Telemetry,” considers the 66-year-old of this kaleidoscopic 14-track opus, “is like a piece of my all-over-the-place mind. It took me a while to start this record because I was thinking about what I wanted to do next, managing my time with all my other projects. I was also in different spaces with these songs: some are new, others are reclamations of material from a long time ago. But suddenly, I found the focus and it was very clear to me: I gotta do this now.”
Speaking about the new single ‘Beautiful Bastard,’ Vernon says: “I wrote that track a while ago. I was maybe going to put it on a Yohimbe Brothers album. There’s something about it. The word ‘bastard’ is attributed to men, but I wanted there to be an ambiguity: is this about a woman, is it about a man? And I firmly believe it could be about a woman, absolutely. I kind of wrote this song as an homage to doomed romance. It’s not about gender – it’s about when you know it’s doomed from the first kiss. And anyone who’s lived a full life will know of what I speak!”
Hoodoo Telemetry isn’t a linear piece, but a thrillingly tangled tapestry of genres, collaborators and material from different time periods. Its energy and chaos seems to reflect and challenge what Reid considers the “tumultuous”
In hard times, Hoodoo Telemetry doesn’t have the answers. But to play Vernon Reid’s breathtakingly ambitious new album is to hear every shade of humanity and question where we are headed next. “These songs are looking at the past through a different lens, then looking forward,” he concludes. “Like, ‘Where is this going and how are we getting there? Are we driving the bus or are we passengers in this self-driving vehicle into the future?’ That’s the space that Hoodoo Telemetry is really exploring…”
Track Listing – CD/Digital
Door Of No Return
Freedom Jazz Dance
Good Afternoon Everyone
The Haunting
Bronx Paradox
Or Knot
Dying To Live
Politician
Black Fathom Five
Beautiful Bastard
Meditation On The Last Times I Saw Arthur Rhames
My Little Zulu Babe
In Effigy
Brave New World
Track Listing – LP
A1 Door of No Return A2 Freedom Jazz Dance A3 Good Afternoon Everyone A4 The Haunting A5 Dying To Live B1 Politician B2 Black Fathom Five B3 Beautiful Bastard B4 My Little Zulu Babe B5 In Effigy
The virtuosic talisman Vernon Reid has announced details of his new solo album Hoodoo Telemetry, which will be released on October 3, 2025 on Artone / The Players Club Records. To celebrate he has revealed the video for the first single, The Haunting, which you can watch HERE.
If you’ve followed the beats of his half-century career, you’ll know Vernon Reid as an artist who paints in every colour. Depending on the era you dive into and the album on your turntable, you’ll find the New York polymath pinballing between jazz, metal, punk, funk, electronica and hip-hop, cutting heads with collaborators as eclectic as Mick Jagger and Public Enemy, endlessly shedding his skin yet always speaking his truth.
Globally celebrated as a giant of electric guitar (he was recently hailed by Rolling Stone amongst the top 50 players of all-time), Reid’s Grammy Award-winning records with alt-rock trailblazers, Living Colour, still sound as fresh and fierce as when Cult Of Personality hijacked the Billboard chart in the late-’80s. But to take the pulse of the zeitgeist as he sees it – and hear his fearless musicality in microcosm – you need only drop the needle on his new solo album.
Hoodoo Telemetry,” considers the 66-year-old of this kaleidoscopic 14-track opus, “is like a piece of my all-over-the-place mind. It took me a while to start this record because I was thinking about what I wanted to do next, managing my time with all my other projects. I was also in different spaces with these songs: some are new, others are reclamations of material from a long time ago. But suddenly, I found the focus and it was very clear to me: I gotta do this now.”
The overdriven funk bassline and glistening soul of first single, The Haunting finds Reid tipping his hat to a fellow chameleon (“I’m a huge Prince fan and there’s some of who he was in that song’s DNA”), before the scratch ‘n’ glitch of the brass-driven Bronx Paradox salutes the New York neighbourhood’s greatest musical export. “I wrote that in tribute to DJ Logic,” he explains. “Everybody considered the Bronx a wasteland, a warzone. But with hip-hop, those kids created the final original music of the 20th century.”
Hoodoo Telemetry isn’t a linear piece, but a thrillingly tangled tapestry of genres, collaborators and material from different time periods. Its energy and chaos seems to reflect and challenge what Reid considers the “tumultuous” Living Colour, Reid’s best-known band burst into bloom on a New York live circuit that was more fluid than ever before or since. “We had an ecology of clubs to play at, from CBGBs to the Cat Club and the Ritz,” he recalls of the first steps of a solidified lineup featuring Corey Glover (vocals), Muzz Skillings (bass) and Will Calhoun (drums).
Carried by word of mouth, the tinderbox was already set to explode when the patronage of Mick Jagger sent the band over the top, the Rolling Stones singer manning the desk for their demos. “He worked on Glamour Boys and Which Way To America?” explains Reid, “and he was a great producer. He really coached Corey along. But it was so fundamentally weird that he entered our lives. I didn’t know where to put my hands.”
Seizing his opportunity, Reid threw everything on his mental jukebox at Living Colour’s deathless debut, 1988’s Vivid. “You had Broken Hearts on the same album as Cult Of Personality,” he points out of a tracklisting where anything could happen. “We might be playing metal one moment then writing a country song with hip-hop the next. Or Funny Vibe, which is like prog-folk informed by King Crimson.”
Sailing to #6 on the US Billboard chart – and ultimately double-platinum status – Vivid proved adventurous music could still sell by the ton. The following year, a support on the Stones’ Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tour bumped their profile – and gave Reid a close-up glimpse at the rock ‘n’ roll super-league. “Backstage on that Stones tour they had all the parlour games – I remember Bill Wyman kicking my ass at ping-pong!”
Alongside Living Colour’s six albums and counting, Reid has worn a thousand different hats since those breakout years, whether producing Grammy-nominated albums for the likes of Salif Keita, composing hit movie scores or lending his guitar skills to a who’s who including Janet Jackson, B.B. King, Tracy Chapman and Mariah Carey.
No doubt, it’s these competing demands that mean Reid’s solo career (which began with 1996’s Mistaken Identity) has lain dormant since 2004’s Known Unknown. “But with everything that’s been happening, suddenly I had a focus,” he says of the febrile context to Hoodoo Telemetry. “Y’know, the world is a ball on a pendulum. It swings. Right now, we’re living through unprecedented times, and not just in America.”
In hard times, Hoodoo Telemetry doesn’t have the answers. But to play Vernon Reid’s breathtakingly ambitious new album is to hear every shade of humanity and question where we are headed next. “These songs are looking at the past through a different lens, then looking forward,” he concludes. “Like, ‘Where is this going and how are we getting there? Are we driving the bus or are we passengers in this self-driving vehicle into the future?’ That’s the space that Hoodoo Telemetry is really exploring…”
Track Listing – CD/Digital 1. Door Of No Return 2. Freedom Jazz Dance 3. Good Afternoon Everyone 4. The Haunting 5. Bronx Paradox 6. Or Knot 7. Dying To Live 8. Politician 9. Black Fathom Five 10. Beautiful Bastard 11. Meditation On The Last Times I Saw Arthur Rhames 12. My Little Zulu Babe 13. In Effigy 14. Brave New World
Track Listing – LP
A1 Door of No Return A2 Freedom Jazz Dance A3 Good Afternoon Everyone A4 The Haunting A5 Dying To Live B1 Politician B2 Black Fathom Five B3 Beautiful Bastard B4 My Little Zulu Babe B5 In Effigy
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