Prison Religion

Prison Religion is a Richmond, Virginia based experimental music duo composed of Parker Black and Warren Jones. Operating at the intersection of experimental rap, industrial electronics, noise, and hardcore, the duo has developed a sound defined by distorted vocals, punishing low-end, abrasive textures, and volatile, club-driven rhythms. Rejecting conventional genre boundaries and song structures, their music transforms the intensity, chaos and isolation of life into a confrontational sonic experience.

From Richmond’s underground music scene, Prison Religion has gained international recognition for its approach to electronic music and rap. Their 2022 album, Hard Industrial B.O.P., released through Lee Gamble’s UIQ label, marked an important step in their evolution. Combining fractured vocal performances, ominous drones, and relentless percussion, the record pushed their sound into darker, more experimental territory, and received coverage from music publication Pitchfork.

Prison Religion’s sound has carried them onto the stages of festivals and venues dedicated to experimental music and electronic art from London to Ukraine to Australia. Festival performances include CTM, Unsound, Dark Mofo, Berlin Atonal, Creepy Teepee, Roskilde, and LOST Music Festival in Italy, where they presented Psalms, a live extension of their release Screaming Crying Throwing Up, produced with collaborator S280F. Prison Religion also teamed up with Only Now for a two-track EP entitled Its Not Who I Am Its What Can I Offer.

Prison Religion continues to occupy a distinctive position in contemporary experimental music. The Richmond-born project, whose amalgamation of poetic screams, industrial noise, and club-derived electronics challenges established genre conventions, connects Virginia’s underground sound to the global experimental music scene.

Togolese Vodou ensemble E’DU and French producer Judgitzu come together for a continuous piece organized around Vodou practice. Developed during a residency in Togo, it draws on Adbadja, Dan and Sakpate rhythms, warrior, initiatory and earthbound forms respectively traditionally used to prepare bodies and invoke forces in Southern Benin.