Kelela - Contact

What this video is

Released January 19, 2023, 'Contact' arrived as the fourth single from Kelela's long-awaited second album *Raven* (Warp Records, February 10, 2023), her first LP after a nearly five-year hiatus. The video participates in a broader cultural moment in which Black queer artists reclaimed and reinvigorated 1990s UK rave and jungle aesthetics — drum-and-bass, 2-step, breakbeat — as vehicles for contemporary expressions…

Why it matters

Represents the early-2020s convergence of alternative R&B, breakbeat, jungle, and 2-step — a sonic lineage running from early Warp Records through Night Slugs and Fade to Mind — entering mainstream critical visibility. The video's aesthetic codifies a genre moment in which intimate, high-fashion…

The director

Director Pumps is a music video director credited across multiple publications including The FADER, Revolt, and DJ Mag as the director of Kelela's 'Contact' (2023). The director operates under the professional moniker 'Director Pumps.' No additional…