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GENESIS OWUSU
shares long-awaited debut album
‘SMILING WITH NO TEETH’

LISTEN HERE

OUT TODAY (!) VIA OURNESS

+ SELLS OUT NATIONAL TOUR, ADDING SELECT MATINEE SHOWS

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ARIA-nominated, Ghanaian-Australian artist and luminary Genesis Owusu releases his defining debut album Smiling With No Teeth, out today on OURNESS and House Anxiety.

Arriving as Owusu’s first album release, Smiling With No Teeth beams with artistic evolution. The 15-track LP seamlessly defies genre boundaries while delineating the nuanced complexities of mental health, as well as Owusu’s experience of living as a black man in a white society. Owusu illustrates each disclosure from within his mind under a tessellation of soundscapes, moving through punk and industrial, to folk while retaining his acumen as a tantalisingly quick-witted rapper. Smiling With No Teeth at its heart, remains dedicated to Owusu’s core audience, those who live outside of the box, out of choice or in a decided lack of belonging.

Owusu says of the forthcoming LP: “Smiling With No Teeth is performing what the world wants to see, even if you don’t have the capacity to do so honestly. Slathering honey on your demons to make them palatable to people who only want to know if you’re okay if the answer is yes. That’s the idea, turned into beautiful, youthful, ugly, timeless and strange music.”

Genesis Owusu (aka Kofi Owusu-Ansah), unpicks concepts of race, identity and belonging on Smiling With No Teeth, entwining his own experience immigrating to Canberra from Ghana as a child. The album’s title—a reference to the way outsiders have to pretend things are okay when they’re not— introduces the record’s “black dog” motif. The “black dog” embodies both an external character, representing society’s outcasts, and the internal demon, that is the inner voice or anxiety that comes with living as an outcast. The relationship between them unravels in every track, kicking off with the grinding electro-beat and filtered vocals of “On The Move!”.

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A quickened pace and rhythm, “The Other Black Dog” follows showing off Kofi’s cinematic lyrics, while “Centrefold” and “Waitin On Ya” are slower and smoother numbers, using the guise of seduction and toxic relationships to speak on his relationship with depression. The theme of the outsider is clear on the album’s debut single, “Don’t Need You” which turns its head on the conforming masses, earning it a recent nomination for Best Soul/R&B Release in the 2020 ARIA Awards. Studio band member, Kirin J Callinan lends his gravelly vocals to the Talking Heads-esque guitar riffs and half-shouted pop mood of “Drown” before “Gold Chains” reverts back to a cooled and catching R&B hook, professing that a shiny or glamorous exterior may allude to a lonely or isolated inner world.

The album’s title track “Smiling With No Teeth” sees Owusu’s charming vocals and spoken word cut through to honest and woozy statements about internal turmoil, and the honeyed salve of performance. “I Don’t See Colour” is a powerful call for self-introspection in a climate of racial profiling and discrimination. “Black Dogs!” and previous single “Whip Cracker” are bursting with propulsive energy, jagged guitars and razor-sharp lyrics that are wholly unapologetic. In sharp contrast, “Easy” is a soulfully hypnotic tale, once again using the guise of failed relationships to speak on relations between BIPOC and the colonised countries that they reside in, while “A Song About Fishing” hears Owusu master indie-led harmonies while singing about trying to succeed in the face of inevitable failure. The uplifting and emotional energy of “No Looking Back” introduces the final track, “Bye Bye” with its distorted loops as a closer of loosened flows and hazily spoken goodnights.

With keys and production by OURNESS label founder Andrew Klippel and mixed by Dave Hammer (Lime Cordiale, Jess Kent, Mia Rodriguez), the album features a prominent studio band made up of Kirin J Callinan on guitar, Michael DiFrancesco (Touch Sensitive) on bass and Julian Sudek (World Champion) on drums. Several tracks from the new album were debuted at Owusu’s intimate Kofi’s Black Dog Jams sold-out shows at Mary’s Underground in Sydney in October 2020, where he was joined on stage with the studio band for a series of dynamic performances.

Last month, Genesis Owusu announced his plans to return to the stage throughout April and May, taking Smiling With No Teeth to all capital cities and a handful of regional locations. With almost all shows sold out (& a handful of matinee shows just added), Owusu and the Goon Club will bring the inimitable live show to a number of beloved venues across the country to mark Genesis Owusu’s biggest and most anticipated live run to date.

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Smiling With No Teeth marks Owusu’s first extended release since 2017’s debut Cardrive EP, which was followed by the 2018 singles “Sideways”, “Awomen, Amen” & “Wit Da Team” that would highlight his star potential. Arriving in 2019, AA side “WUTD” & “Vultures” publicised his thrilling adaptability, going on to land his first ARIA-nomination for Best R&B/Soul Release and gain attention from tastemakers Sir Elton John, triple j, mixmag and more. Follow up AA Side “Good Times” & “Simmer Down” equalled in execution, racking up close to 10 million streams in its year of release alone. On stage, Genesis Owusu has enraptured fans nationwide since he first burst onto the scene as a Triple J Unearthed High finalist in 2015. Hosting sell-out shows with his enigmatic performances, Owusu has featured at festival stages across the country including Groovin’ the Moo, Spilt Milk, St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival, Splendour in the Grass, Field Day, Falls Festival and Meredith Music Festival. He’s supported the likes of Dead Prez, Col3trane, Sampa The Great, Cosmo’s Midnight, Noname, Aminé and Ruel and made his TV debut on ABC’s The Set in 2019. Most recently, Genesis headed into the triple j studio for his debut Like A Version performance, delivering a powerful rendition of Sex Pistol’s anthem, “Anarchy In The UK”, alongside the album’s debut single, “Don’t Need You”.

Today, Genesis Owusu presents a soul-bearing narrative and full-length release that is impossible to ignore. Smiling With No Teeth intuitively picks apart and reassembles themes of mental health, resilience and race, to become a culmination of ideas and defining chapter in Owusu’s acclaimed discography, that begs for listening over and over.

SMILING WITH NO TEETH
is out today
STREAM HERE

SMILING WITH NO TEETH
Album Tour
TICKET INFO HERE

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SMILING WITH NO TEETH
TRACKLIST

1. On The Move!
2. The Other Black Dog
3. Centrefold
4. Waitin’ On Ya
5. Don’t Need You
6. Drown feat. Kirin J Callinan
7. Gold Chains
8. Smiling With No Teeth
9. I Don’t See Colour
10. Black Dogs!
11. Whip Cracker
12. Easy
13. A Song About Fishing
14. No Looking Back
15. Bye Bye

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SMILING WITH NO TEETH
ALBUM TOUR

PRESENTED BY HANDSOME TOURS & ASTRAL PEOPLE, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH NICHE & OURNESS

TICKET INFO HERE

Ticket only: $30.00 + BF
Ticket + Digital album download bundle: $35.00 + BF
Ticket + Vinyl bundle: $80.00 + BF
Ticket + T-shirt + Digital album download bundle: $50.00 + BF

SHOW DATES

Fri 9 April (Early) – The Triffid, Brisbane QLD [NEW SHOW ADDED]
Fri 9 April (Late) – The Triffid, Brisbane QLD [SOLD OUT]
Sat 10 April (Early) – Solbar, Sunshine Coast QLD [NEW SHOW ADDED]
Sat 10 April (Late) – Solbar, Sunshine Coast QLD [SOLD OUT]
Thurs 15 April (Early) – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney NSW [SOLD OUT]
Thurs 15 April (Late) – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney NSW [SOLD OUT]
Fri 16 April (Early) – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney NSW [SOLD OUT]
Fri 16 April (Late) – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney NSW [SOLD OUT]
Sat 17 April – UC Hub, Canberra ACT [SOLD OUT]
Wed 21 April – Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC [SOLD OUT]
Thurs 22 April – Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC [SOLD OUT]
Fri 23 April – Corner Hotel, Melbourne VIC [SOLD OUT]
Sat 24 April – Republic Bar, Hobart TAS [SOLD OUT]
Thurs 29 April – Mojo’s Bar, Fremantle WA [SOLD OUT]
Fri 30 April (Early) – The Rosemount Hotel, Perth WA [NEW SHOW ADDED]
Fri 30 April (Late) – The Rosemount Hotel, Perth WA [SOLD OUT]
Sat 1 May (Early) – Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide SA
Sat 1 May (Late) – Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide SA [SOLD OUT]
Fri 7 May (Early) – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney NSW [SOLD OUT]
Fri 7 May (Late) – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney NSW [SOLD OUT]
Sat 8 May (Early) – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney NSW [SOLD OUT]
Sat 8 May (Late) – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney NSW [SOLD OUT]
Sat 14 May – UC Hub, Canberra ACT [SOLD OUT]

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Follow GENESIS OWUSU
WEBSITE – FACEBOOK – INSTAGRAM

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AMNPLIFY – DB