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Nourished By Time Announces New Album The Passionate Ones

Nourished By Time Announces New Album The Passionate Ones

Scoop11-05-2025

Nourished By Time Announces New Album The Passionate Ones
On August 22nd 2025, Baltimore singer-songwriter and producer Nourished By Time will release his highly anticipated new album The Passionate Ones via XL Recordings. Crafted between Baltimore, London, and NYC, The Passionate Ones is a sermon, a twelve-track catharsis, howled from the underbelly of late-stage capitalism, a blueprint for building your own altar in the ruins of the American Dream. The project launches today with 'Max Potential,' a track revealing a soul unready for the weight of its own potential, accompanied by a music video—directed by and starring Nourished By Time's Marcus Brown—shot beneath David Hammons's Day's End sculpture in New York City.
Initially created in Los Angeles' in late 2019, Nourished By Time emerged as Marcus Brown's escape from the monotony of his day jobs and a continuously crushed spirit by an increasingly corrupt world. Channeling his deeply personal and sharply observational visions into songwriting, Brown has created a singular sonic world shaped by his hometown of Baltimore's rich and eclectic musical heritage where jazz, punk, indie, hip hop, electronic and R&B collide in raw harmony. On The Passionate Ones, Brown tackles love, labor, existentialism, dreams, disillusionment, and hope through the lens of metamodernism, documenting an American story of an artist using their vices to keep them afloat while they follow their passions and dreams.
The Passionate Ones arrives in the wake of a radiant ascent. With Erotic Probiotic 2 (Scenic Route), Nourished by Time cracked open 2023—earning Pitchfork's Best New Music and topping Gorilla vs Bear's year-end list, while drawing praise from The Guardian, The FADER, Paste, and more. 2024's Catching Chickens (XL) only deepened the allure: CRACK Magazine placed him on its cover, naming 'Hell of a Ride' the track of the year. The song echoed across NPR, Resident Advisor, CLASH, The FACE, Mixmag, UPROXX, and Spotify's Best Songs of 2024 lists, and he performed a magnetic live performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert's #LateShowMeMusic live series. Along the way, Nourished By Time's voice threaded through collaborations with Yaeji, Kacy Hill, and evilgiane, a spectral remix of Dry Cleaning's 'Gary Ashby,' and tours with Metronomy, Panda Bear, and Toro y Moi, solidifying his position as one of contemporary music's most intriguing and vital new artists.
The Passionate Ones is available pre-order now as a LP (black, crystal clear, and limited edition white-label), CD and to pre-save on all digital platforms. Out August 22, 2025 worldwide.
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Kōkā Puts Māori Storytelling, Healing, And Matariki At The Heart Of Its Journey
Kōkā Puts Māori Storytelling, Healing, And Matariki At The Heart Of Its Journey

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time2 days ago

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Kōkā Puts Māori Storytelling, Healing, And Matariki At The Heart Of Its Journey

A new feature film weaving together Māori storytelling, intergenerational healing, and the significance of Matariki has hit the big screens today, offering Aotearoa a moving experience grounded in te ao Māori. Kōkā, directed by Kath Akuhata-Brown (Ngāti Porou), follows the journey of two wāhine - a kuia named Hamo and a troubled young woman, Jo - who form an unlikely bond on a road trip across Aotearoa. Described by Akuhata-Brown as "a road movie, but a journey that is both physical and metaphysical", the film platforms both mātauranga Māori and the Ngāti Porou dialect. "I genuinely wanted to create something that showed the world how beautiful being Māori is to me," Akuhata-Brown said. Akuhata-Brown first wrote Kōkā nearly 20 years ago but said now was the perfect time to share it. "I wanted the world to understand that our existence is so deeply connected to our land and our tīpuna. This doesn't make us a people who live in the past, but a vibrant, connected nation." The film's release coincides with Matariki, a season of remembrance, renewal, and wānanga. It's also a time that brought Akuhata-Brown closer to mātauranga Māori, she said. "It wasn't until making the film that I started understanding Matariki's significance to me personally. "My dad lived by Matariki principles... it was just his way of life. It was all he knew. Everything was alive: pounamu, the stars, the whenua, the awa - all of it was a living entity. "That's why it became important to me. I started understanding that more during the process of making Kōkā." Māori voices at the forefront Kōkā stood in deliberate contrast to earlier portrayals of Māori in films like Once Were Warriors, Akuhata-Brown said. Released in 1994 and directed by Lee Tamahori, Once Were Warriors follows an urban Māori whānau living in South Auckland and their problems with poverty, domestic violence, and alcoholism, caused by intergenerational trauma, racism, and systemic land loss. "The intention was to bring elements of healing into the work, to ensure that when people come away from it, they're not traumatised. Because I am so sick of traumatising films," Akuhata-Brown said. She said the current political climate made it more important than ever to share Māori stories. "I think if you look through history, the greatest storytellers emerge in the darkest periods. Not just in te ao Māori, but across the world. "Artists are the soul of the nation. And our souls need some help right now." A spiritual journey of healing and whakapapa Hinetu Dell (Ngāti Porou), who plays the character Hamo, said it was "humbling" to be part of a kaupapa that uplifted her people. "It's really important for those who live in isolated areas or isolated spaces to see their kind on the screen. It's something they can aspire to and achieve." She said stepping into the role of Hamo, a kuia deeply rooted in tikanga and whakapapa, felt natural. "A lot of the experiences that Hamo was going through, I had already experienced in my own life. I was very comfortable with the Māori protocols." Kōkā also explored intergenerational trauma and how the restoration of mauri begins through service, connection, and care. "Hamo serves this girl by doing all the work, catching the kai that's important to young women. Hamo does karakia, and during that whole process, Jo, who has come into this place bruised and battered, is healed," Dell said. A tribute to a life lived and lost Jo's character was inspired by a real person Akuhata-Brown once met, a young Māori man who had been institutionalised, released into the community, and left to "survive on his own". "He lived under the Grafton Bridge and used to read the newspaper to see who had passed away, then turn up to their tangi," she said. "He had no filters, it was quite full on. People were nervous around him. I thought to myself, he's not long for this world. Three years later, his body was found in a ditch." Akuhata-Brown said she couldn't stop thinking about him. "My Jo in the film is that Joe. It's to honour him and his life when no one else did." She said the character served as a reminder of the realities some Māori still face. "All I know is that someone's life has been given that's the truth." Connection through te reo and identity Darneen Christian (Tūhoe, Ngāti Kahungunu, Pitcairn Island), who plays Jo, said the production was both challenging and rewarding. "I love that it's touching people who don't know their whakapapa and their culture. It's touching a lot of things people are starting to finally be passionate about and trying to work on." Like her character, Christian said she had been distant from her Māori whakapapa. But being on set helped her reconnect. "I teared up at one of our rehearsals and said I can't communicate with you in the language. Everyone was so supportive, I realised I wasn't going to be looked down on." The film's alignment with Matariki made the experience more meaningful. "It's a time to release and start again... to leave what has happened behind and welcome what's new." Dell said the journey of understanding Matariki had also evolved for her. "Matariki is a word that's very familiar to me in terms of haka and waiata," Dell said. "Prior to that, we didn't really understand what Matariki really meant until today. The research in terms of Matariki has been instrumental in developing us as a people to go forward." Te reo Māori, whenua, and a nod to Ngāti Porou Kōkā was the first feature film to be shot predominantly in the Ngāti Porou dialect. The dialogue was developed with local kaumātua, language experts, and Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Porou. Akuhata-Brown said the language spanned generations, from modern-day reo to expressions once used by Māori Battalion soldiers. "The language of women is different to the language of men and there's even a Ngāti Porou language of love," she said. "It's a full range of te reo and it was incredibly important to the filmmaking team that the language create a tapestry of beauty and gorgeousness. I haven't dared touch it." Actor Te Kohe Tuhaka (Ngāti Porou, Tūhoe), known widely in Aotearoa for his role in The Dead Lands, plays Marcus in the film, a police officer who acts as a protector to Hamo. He said Kōkā' s use of reo is empowering but "normal." "I grew up in a period where I just thought everybody spoke te reo Māori, and English was second, everybody's second language. Which is not the case. Case in point to the current government. "Everything about te ao Māori is a very normalised thing in my life. That is not to say that I am an expert in any of it. I just know what I know, and I've grown how I've grown." Tuhaka said an important part of the film is exploring the universal challenges Māori still face today. 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"It reflects all those female aspects - not just one," Akuhata-Brown said. "Along the Waiapu riverbanks are marae often led by chiefly women, nurturing all the people who live there." "The river's flow mirrors the story structure, with all rivers joining the central character Hamo on her journey out to sea," she said. Making space for future storytellers All of the film's actors offered words of encouragement to rangatahi, wāhine, and Māori wanting to enter the film industry. Tuhaka said it was important for aspiring creatives to understand their purpose. "You have to really know why. Why this industry? Why this craft?" he said. "We're lucky here in Aotearoa that it's not foreign to dabble in a whole raft of things, in front of the camera, behind the camera. But it's about understanding the 'why' because you'll get more noes than yeses, and the why is what gets you through the no's and lets you really celebrate the yeses," Tuhaka said. "Kia kaha, kia māia, kia manawanui. "If this is something you want, go for it. Make mistakes, stand up, and carry on," Dell said. Christian said the time was right for more Māori voices in film. "This is the time. The pot's boiling for the right time to start jumping in." Kōkā premieres across Aotearoa this Matariki, Friday, 20 June.

Shayni in the Sky, a film about Shayni Couch and her journey of love and loss, set to debut in NZ
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Shayni in the Sky, a film about Shayni Couch and her journey of love and loss, set to debut in NZ

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