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ANGEL-HO's New Track Is About the Lack of Safe Space for Queer People of Color in Cape Town Clubs

The angry vogue house track is the latest offering from the Arca and Rabit-affiliated South African producer.
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Photo by ANGEL-HO

Rabit's Halcyon Veil imprint has only been around for a little while, but it's already introduced the world to some incredible music. Back in August, it put out arguably one of the year's most exciting releases, Cape Town artist ANGEL-HO's Ascension EP, mastered by Björk-collaborator Arca. There were undeniable traces of voguing culture on the NON Records co-founder's (née Angelo Antonio Valerio) debut release—particularly in the track title of "YAH CUNT" and employment of the "Ha" crash, a ballroom track staple (originally from a Masters At Work track), on "REMOVALS"—but now he's gone all-out and released a ballroom house track on Philly vogue institution PUMPDABEAT, curated by VJtheDJ.

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Titled "RUNNIN' WITH KNIVES," it's a menacing, industrial, and SFX-heavy affair, almost cyberpunk in tone—the 4/4 beat offering propulsive grounding for the array of sounds cutting sharp angles and dovetailing swoops on top. Interestingly, the artist tweeted this morning that it was his first-ever production.

Valerio dove into the social message behind track via a Twitter DM with THUMP: "It was a track of rage about the lack of safe space for queer [people of color] in Cape Town clubs," he explained. "Even within our LGBTQ community spots, racism still exists in our community. Also, people forget their intersectional politics when discussing these spaces. So the track became a center of the safe space, like a military submarine interface, searching seeking, breathing… meets Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson in Scream, with a blade whistling the air, replacing a guitar."

Furthermore, the artist offered, "But in its complexity, it's more about feeling and being aggressive, I also feel like queer people's narratives get lost, and our music or work becomes about our identity, but people forget Angel-Ho is more about revealing conditions through a struggle of escaping reality. This is the narrative of my performance character, her nature, she can merely create multiple centers, because the world assimilates too many oppressive contexts onto my work. It gets lost in translation whereas the sound is forgotten as an isolated language articulating what English vernacular fails. Sound exists outside or isn't completely colonized, it feels like the last free language ✨"

Rabit's Halcyon Veil imprint has only been around for a little while, but it's already introduced the world to some incredible music. Back in August, it put out arguably one of the year's most exciting releases, Cape Town artist ANGEL-HO's Ascension EP, mastered by Björk-collaborator Arca. There were undeniable traces of voguing culture on the NON Records co-founder's (née Angelo Antonio Valerio) debut release—particularly in the track title of "YAH CUNT" and employment of the "Ha" crash, a ballroom track staple (originally from a Masters At Work track), on "REMOVALS"—but now he's gone all-out and released a ballroom house track on Philly vogue institution PUMPDABEAT, curated by VJtheDJ.

Titled "RUNNIN' WITH KNIVES," it's a menacing, industrial, and SFX-heavy affair, almost cyberpunk in tone—the 4/4 beat offering propulsive grounding for the array of sounds cutting sharp angles and dovetailing swoops on top. Interestingly, the artist tweeted this morning that it was his first-ever production.

Valerio dove into the social message behind track via a Twitter DM with THUMP: "It was a track of rage about the lack of safe space for queer [people of color] in Cape Town clubs," he explained. "Even within our LGBTQ community spots, racism still exists in our community. Also, people forget their intersectional politics when discussing these spaces. So the track became a center of the safe space, like a military submarine interface, searching seeking, breathing... meets Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson in Scream, with a blade whistling the air, replacing a guitar."

Furthermore, the artist offered, "But in its complexity, it's more about feeling and being aggressive, I also feel like queer people's narratives get lost, and our music or work becomes about our identity, but people forget Angel-Ho is more about revealing conditions through a struggle of escaping reality. This is the narrative of my performance character, her nature, she can merely create multiple centers, because the world assimilates too many oppressive contexts onto my work. It gets lost in translation whereas the sound is forgotten as an isolated language articulating what English vernacular fails. Sound exists outside or isn't completely colonized, it feels like the last free language ✨"

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