Flung - Shaky But My Hair Is Grown

Flung is the moniker of multi-instrumentalist Janak JP (they/them). Their first venture into solo work, debut release Shaky But My Hair Is Grown was written and recorded in Oakland, CA over three weeks in April 2020, shortly after quarantine began. A carefully structured catharsis of energy and an embodiment of JP’s frenetic process, Shaky But My Hair Is Grown showcases the wanderings and explorations of an artist left to their own devices.

Led by inspired sampling, Flung pulls from a vast catalogue of influences including traditional Shona music of Zimbabwe, Brazilian MPB, contemporaries like Nick Hakim and Palm, and the work of radical Black poet/philosophers such as Fred Moten and Nathaniel Mackey. Collecting sounds as if material, Flung plays with tactile fragments of vibrant sonic matter, following the feeling of songs as they sit in the body and the movement they elicit.

Flung’s debut album showcases their aptitude for songcraft; Shaky But My Hair Is Grown is both restless and instantly relatable. Ambient recordings and unusual chord progressions play duets over hard hitting polyrhythms woven from glitchy samples and clipped loops. The album’s whimsical yet poignant songs venture in all directions, a scattering of textures laced together with some intangible thread. Finding cadence in assemblage, Flung never sits in one place for too long, instead inviting the listener to share in the joy of the unpredictable.