The enigmatic artist Jhelisa has officially released her new single ‘Purpose Love” today on Dorado Records. ‘Purpose Love’ is an epic nine-minute opus that opens with the hypnotic lyric “You are the beauty that lives within the madness, Purpose Love." First debuted via an exclusive listening party on Bandcamp last week, the track is now available across all streaming platforms beginning today, along with two separate versions: ‘Purpose Love’ (Acoustic Lovers Edit) 2:02 and ‘Purpose Love’ (Edit) 4:09. Carried by her mesmerizing vocals and spiritual potency, the lushly-composed, 10-minute odyssey floats between jazz, soul and psychedelia while marking Jhelisa’s first new music since 2022.
“My initial inspiration for ‘Purpose Love’ was simple, a totally intentional lyric,” says Jhelisa. “No ambiguities, using a specific and direct message, that is recognizing the love in life, honoring the love in my life, uplifting the love in my life, from all the places from which it comes. A repetitive, motivating manifesto, an energy that is a proclamation sent out into the atmosphere with a mission to generate a counter energy to the chaos of crazy violence, ignorance and confusion permeating and threatening our very existence. The lyric ‘You are the BEAUTY that LIVES, My Purpose Is Love’ that thought and intention becomes a true force…the closest I will get to an invocation, incantation, hoodoo, used in the most positive way to produce the big balancing energy, feeling, and outcome…I hope this song is used to create a Love Revolution, madness is welcome but it won’t survive.”
‘Purpose Love’ is a tour de force that took a year to complete between Jhelisa in Atlanta and collaborators in the US, UK and around the world. Co-produced by Jhelisa and her regular collaborator Jono Podmore, who also performed on theremin and synths, with Finn Peterson flute, piccolo and sax (who previously featured on Jhelisa’s 3rd album ‘A Primitive Guide to Being There’), with Brazilian artist Chocolat Costa on bass, guitar and percussion, Eric ‘Smooth’ Rose on drums, Contravious Render on bass, Eric ‘Ezy’ Tolliver on organ and keys, Kenton M. Davies on additional Drums and Sayako Sugawara providing field recordings, Chenitha Reddick on trombone and Philip Davis on trumpet.
The song arrives during a momentous time for Jhelisa, as she celebrates 30 years since the release of her cosmic debut Galactica Rush with a newly reissued vinyl of the cult-classic album. The new version of the record on vinyl is out now, remastered in hi res audio and cut at half speed to vinyl by Miles Showell at Abbey Road from the original analogue masters. When Galactica Rush was originally released in 1994 on Dorado it was quickly hailed as a masterpiece by the media, from The Guardian, Time Out, NME, MOJO, Mixmag, Musicweek, to i-D, who called Galactica Rush “a potent brew of jazz, funk and soul, with style and substance.” Limited to only 1000 pressings, the vinyl is available here via Dorado Records, while the album can be streamed now here.
On November 22nd, a second vinyl pressing is set to follow fast on the heels of today’s release: a new 12” featuring the Sunship remixes of “Friendly Pressure,” Jhelisa’s hit song from the album that was remixed by Ceri Evans in 1998 and reborn earlier this year. The release will include Sunship’s “Into The Sunshine Mix," which went viral on TikTok this spring and serendipitously introduced the track to a new generation of listeners just in time for the 30th anniversary. The remix has been used as the sound for over 500k TikTok videos, garnering 1.5 billion collective views on the app, with over 60 million streams across DSPs in 2024 alone. Limited to 500 pressings, the remix 12” features a brand new 2024 Sunship Remix and will be available later this month.
The Mississippi-born songstress, who GQ dubbed “Cosmic princess of soul," comes from a family of music legends—including Vicki Anderson and Bobby Byrd from the James Brown band, who were her aunt and uncle. Before beginning her journey as a solo artist in the mid-1990s, she got her start singing in church which eventually led to her becoming the go-to vocalist for Bjork, Massive Attack and The Shamen. But she didn’t feel at home until she began working on Galactica Rush, where she had creative control and was encouraged to push the boundaries.
“My initial inspiration for ‘Purpose Love’ was simple, a totally intentional lyric,” says Jhelisa. “No ambiguities, using a specific and direct message, that is recognizing the love in life, honoring the love in my life, uplifting the love in my life, from all the places from which it comes. A repetitive, motivating manifesto, an energy that is a proclamation sent out into the atmosphere with a mission to generate a counter energy to the chaos of crazy violence, ignorance and confusion permeating and threatening our very existence. The lyric ‘You are the BEAUTY that LIVES, My Purpose Is Love’ that thought and intention becomes a true force…the closest I will get to an invocation, incantation, hoodoo, used in the most positive way to produce the big balancing energy, feeling, and outcome…I hope this song is used to create a Love Revolution, madness is welcome but it won’t survive.”
‘Purpose Love’ is a tour de force that took a year to complete between Jhelisa in Atlanta and collaborators in the US, UK and around the world. Co-produced by Jhelisa and her regular collaborator Jono Podmore, who also performed on theremin and synths, with Finn Peterson flute, piccolo and sax (who previously featured on Jhelisa’s 3rd album ‘A Primitive Guide to Being There’), with Brazilian artist Chocolat Costa on bass, guitar and percussion, Eric ‘Smooth’ Rose on drums, Contravious Render on bass, Eric ‘Ezy’ Tolliver on organ and keys, Kenton M. Davies on additional Drums and Sayako Sugawara providing field recordings, Chenitha Reddick on trombone and Philip Davis on trumpet.
The song arrives during a momentous time for Jhelisa, as she celebrates 30 years since the release of her cosmic debut Galactica Rush with a newly reissued vinyl of the cult-classic album. The new version of the record on vinyl is out now, remastered in hi res audio and cut at half speed to vinyl by Miles Showell at Abbey Road from the original analogue masters. When Galactica Rush was originally released in 1994 on Dorado it was quickly hailed as a masterpiece by the media, from The Guardian, Time Out, NME, MOJO, Mixmag, Musicweek, to i-D, who called Galactica Rush “a potent brew of jazz, funk and soul, with style and substance.” Limited to only 1000 pressings, the vinyl is available here via Dorado Records, while the album can be streamed now here.
On November 22nd, a second vinyl pressing is set to follow fast on the heels of today’s release: a new 12” featuring the Sunship remixes of “Friendly Pressure,” Jhelisa’s hit song from the album that was remixed by Ceri Evans in 1998 and reborn earlier this year. The release will include Sunship’s “Into The Sunshine Mix," which went viral on TikTok this spring and serendipitously introduced the track to a new generation of listeners just in time for the 30th anniversary. The remix has been used as the sound for over 500k TikTok videos, garnering 1.5 billion collective views on the app, with over 60 million streams across DSPs in 2024 alone. Limited to 500 pressings, the remix 12” features a brand new 2024 Sunship Remix and will be available later this month.
The Mississippi-born songstress, who GQ dubbed “Cosmic princess of soul," comes from a family of music legends—including Vicki Anderson and Bobby Byrd from the James Brown band, who were her aunt and uncle. Before beginning her journey as a solo artist in the mid-1990s, she got her start singing in church which eventually led to her becoming the go-to vocalist for Bjork, Massive Attack and The Shamen. But she didn’t feel at home until she began working on Galactica Rush, where she had creative control and was encouraged to push the boundaries.
