By Phil Scarisbrick

Being an anti-[insert nefarious entity] activist is traditionally born out of a sense of what is right and wrong, cultivated over a period of eduation when you are old enough to see the wood from the trees and make your own mind up. For Afghan-American artist, Ariana Delwari though, it feels like she was always on the path to follow a life campaigning for the betterment of her Afghani kin, and against the tyranical Taliban. Her 2013 film, We Came Home, looks at her journeys to and from Afghanistan and her family over a ten year period. 

Since the release of her last record, Delwari has lost her mother and brother-in-law, and the Taliban have retaken control of her homeland. It is hard to imagine how much of a toll these events could have taken, and it is this sorrow that is the background of her new record – I Will Remember, released on 7th August via MANIMAL.

Our first taste come in the form of new single, Cloak of Lies. Intertwining guitar and pedal steel shimmy and dance around each other, sometimes verging on violence for supremacy in the mix. The manic sense that this creates is only heightened by the arrival of the chorus’ synth. Delwari’s dissection of outdated narratives and values in our bodies culminates with the simple repeated mantra: ‘We are more than this’.

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