Joe Rainey

Rainey grew up a Red Lake Ojibwe in Minneapolis, a city with one of the largest, proudest Native populations in the country. He was raised on the South side near Franklin Avenue, the post-Reorganization Act urban nexus of local Native American life. Rainey came of age in the heart of this community (also the birthplace of AIM), but always felt like he was living in a liminal space with the Reservation five hours North. At an early age Rainey started recording groups and practiced dancing and singing. As a teenager he started his first drum group, and soon his voice grew strong enough to sing in Midnite Express, a new drum group featuring members of the legendary group The Boyz. They were professionals, city Indians travelling all over, repping their reservations and their neighborhoods—competing for cash and cred, always striving to capture that “Pow Wow feeling” of togetherness. Rainey was just as much of a fan as he was a participant, recording others then studying the tapes, cataloging the different styles.

Nicht nur ehemalige Kollaborateur:innen wie etwa Bon Iver wissen um die Besonderheit dessen, was Pow-Wow-Sänger Joe Rainey seit Jahren auf Tonträger und Bühne bringt. Er transportiert die Klänge und Trommelriten der Red Lake Ojibwe in höchst originäre Sounds, in denen Echos aus Industrial und Techno Verbindungslinien wie auch Bruchstellen zwischen Tradition und Gegenwart hervorbringen. Abseits routinierter Fusion- Logiken und frei von jedwedem folkloristischen Gestus gelingt hier eine verblüffende Rekontextualisierung spiritueller Ausdrucksformen im Zeichen gelebter urbaner Indigenität.