In response to the death of 23-year-old Elijah McClain in August 2019 by an officer from the Aurora Police Department, Luke Slater adopts his L.B. Dub Corp production alias for a four-track extended player on Mote-Evolver.
Scheduled for release on Bandcamp Friday (19 June), ‘This One’s For Elijah‘ EP is Slater’s attempt to shine a light on the case and to help raise funds for the Elijah McClain Foundation. Below is the text written by Joe Muggs, providing context to the release and fundraiser:
The 23 year old from Aurora, Colorado, died in August last year after being subdued and sedated after being reported by a 911 caller as looking “sketchy” while simply walking home from a convenience store. There was something about McClain that sparked a pang of recognition in Slater. Partly it was just fellow-feeling for a keen musician and misfit – McClain had taught himself to play guitar and violin in childhood, which is no small feat, and his mother Sheneen called him “a child-like spirit, not conditioned to the norms of America… He lived in his own little world. He was never into, like, fitting in. He just was who he was.” Partly too it’s that his case had gone unrecognised at the time, just another senseless snuffing out of life for being the wrong colour in the wrong place at the wrong time. Slater wanted to help if he could, but also to shine a light on the case.
Thus This One’s for Elijah. It’s a fundraiser for Sheneen McClain’s Foundation, but also an emotional response. The jacking house of “You Got To” and the slow electro funk of “Body Groove” both have a heads-down sense of determination to them, while the flowing techno of “Walk to the Mountain and See” and the 11-minute “Rain Coming” are elegiac, perhaps even with a sense of spiritual freedom. A lot of difficult questions have been asked about music and its place in troubled times recently, but for Slater this has brought something home: music was vital to Elijah McClain, and so, while it is a highlighting of injustice, and an attempt to help a grieving mother, this release is above all else a celebration of a creative soul.
‘This One’s For Elijah’ EP is scheduled for release 19 June via Mote-Evolver. Order a copy on Bandcamp.
TRACKLIST
1. Rain Coming
2. Body Groove
3. You Got To
4. Walk To The Mountain And See