Band: Afrofuturistics
Song: “The Enigmatic” feat. Levi Stress & Artis Slaw
Album: The Enigmatic EP
Release Date: August 14th, 2026
Label: Big Bonkey Records
Purchase/Stream:
Tenor saxophonist Keith Wakefield said of the song:
“This is my favorite track on the EP because it showcases everyone in the group and it hints at the future potential of the band, whether that be hip hop, jazz, world music or whatever. I don’t think we were thinking about that in the studio though. This song evolved from jamming Erik and I had done with Sands Of The Hour. In the studio, I laid down a scratch track along with Erik’s bass and Brother Tone’s beats and samples. The original samples weren’t quite in tune, so we had to adjust our playing, but we got there. From there we just started adding things that sounded cool. Eric McWhorter was very helpful in his suggestions for Abdoulaye’s Kora lines. Pretty much everyone in the studio put their heart into this one.”
Bassist/synth player Erik Oldman comments on the clip:
“This song really is the sum of all parts and all of the sonic facets of Afrofuturistics. I consider it the crown jewel of the EP. For the video we shot a bunch of green screen footage and had a cache of live performance footage to pull from over the Summer. I wanted to create something that presented the identity of the band, its relationship to our city and with the notions and traditions of cosmic jazz, underground hip-hop, and some of the more psychedelic notions related to Afrofuturism.”