I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: January 28, 2026] Halima

I’ve known about Sudan Archives since her first album came out.  I wanted to see her in 2020, but her show sold out.  Then it was just before the COVID shutdown and her show wasn’t cancelled but hardly anyone went so I could have gone (but I didn’t know that and probably wouldn’t have gone anyway).  I had a ticket to see her a couple years ago but didn’t make it.  But then I finally saw her at All Things Go in 2023,so I was excited to get to see her again at her own show.

I had not heard of Halima, but she seemed to have some buzz around her.  She came out looking fierce in a half jacket with huge shoulders.  She had beads in her hair, marched out to the mic all by herself and started her backing music.

It was really impressive that she stood there with just the mic and her backing music playing as she sang her genre-unspecific music.  I really enjoyed the spare backing sounds of her songs.  omoge was a series of soft notes as she sang gently over them.    Her second song (which I never found the name of) was a bit more bouncy with some deep bass notes.

I really liked the sounds of cocoa body–a kind of percussive melody accompanied by deep bass notes.  Most of her songs were pretty short, but this one did have a middle instrumental section where Halima showed off her great dance moves.

Halima is British but she lives in Brooklyn.  I loved hearing her talk–there’s something really cool sounding about the way British singers say Phillleeee. 

I liked the even more staccato sounds of eau de vie like a modified piano plinking out the notes.  Oops has more of a beat and got people moving.  She played one older song, Vehicle, which had a bit more of a rapping feel.  But her delivery of it was great.

Then she ended with my favorite song Eleven Eleven.  It had a heavy beat and a cool delivery.  She was a really enjoyable opening act.  She said she’d be at the merch table and invited people to come chat because “we could be friends.”

On my way out of the building she was standing in the doorway and I would have loved to chat with her but there were several people in the way so I just headed home early instead.