Sudan Archives has announced that her third album, THE BPM (Stones Throw), will be released October 17th. The double single “MY TYPE” / “YEA YEA YEA” is out now, following on the release of “DEAD” earlier this year. On THE BPM, Sudan Archives – real name Brittney Parks – embodies the concept that following your own muse is the surest route to artistic and personal fulfilment. If her last two albums looked to the past – she was both goddess and muse on 2019’s Athena, and wrote a punky coming-of-age tale for 2022’s Natural Brown Prom Queen – THE BPM imagines a dazzling, chrome-plated future in which we’re all tapped into our own sense of rhythm. As she sings on the album’s title track and thesis: “The BPM is the power.” 

THE BPM looks to Sudan’s mother’s roots in Michigan and her father’s in Illinois; it was partially completed in Chicago and Detroit, embracing the club sounds from those cities while taking in everything from Jersey club to contemporary global dance musics and experimental beatwork. The whole record is a family affair: Parks enlisted her sister, a cousin from Detroit, and one of her best friends to assist; exclusively working with people she knew intimately rather than bringing in producers from outside the fold. 

On THE BPM she introduces a new persona: Gadget Girl, a technologically advanced musician who’s exalted by her embrace of technology. “I was never the girl in a band in high school – I could only express myself for the first time when I got my first iPad and started making beats on it, and when I got my first electric violin. I’m all gadget girled out now, but I’ve never felt so free as a human,” she says. 

THE BPM explores themes of mental illness, self-love, technology, romance and heartbreak even as it embraces a raucous, party-starting energy. It also introduces a more clarified Sudan – an executive producer and artist moving with grace and gonzo confidence through her most fun, freewheeling record yet. 

Sudan describes “MY TYPE” as her first “rap rap song” – a cascading track about sexual liberation that also features some of her most outré production. “The song is kind of flirty and corny and sexy, because I’m hyping up my friends and also saying ‘These are the types of girls I like’,” she says. “It’s also hinting on sexuality – are these just friends, or women I’m in love with?” In the video directed by Luke Orlando, Sudan produces multiple ‘types’ of herself, cycling through personalities before reconciling the person behind the technology and self she’s created. 

SUDAN ARCHIVES ON TOUR

Aug 2 – Idyllwild, CA – FWB Fest
Sep 7 – Durham, NC – Duke University
Sep 13 – Brooklyn, NY – Under The K Bridge w/ TV On the Radio
Sep 26 – Austin, TX – Levitation
Nov 7 – Los Angeles, CA – Lodge Room Festival
Nov 27 – Berlin, DE – Betonhalle
Nov 29 – Amsterdam, NL – Paradiso
Nov 30 – Brussels, BE – Botanique – Orangerie
Dec 1 – Paris, FR – Le Trianon
Dec 3 – London, UK – The Roundhouse
Dec 4 – Manchester, UK – Academy 2
Dec 5 – Leeds, UK – Stylus
Dec 6 – Glasgow, UK – QMU
Dec 8 – Dublin, IE – The Academy