Sons of Kemet, Your Queen Is A Reptile

Sons of Kemet, Your Queen Is A Reptile

An London-based jazz outfit with heavy African and Carribean influences, Sons of Kemet play joyful, celebratory, emphatically danceable music built for tearing down the walls of white patriarchy. Each song is dedicated, by title, to power Black women leaders, thinkers and liberators (one of whom is bandleader Shabaka Hutchings’ great grandmother). Most of the songs are instrumental, but the vocals first two tracks make the band’s intentions clear: The music is unquestionably jubilant, but it is also pledged in service to a greater cause, and the fierceness and the power of this music is palpable even in the most festive numbers. Musically the core is avant-jazz but reggae, funk, African folk traditions, grime and modern dance music all join in the fun. Highlights: “My Queen Is Ada Eastman,” “My Queen Is Angela Davis,” “My Queen Is Albertina Sisulu”

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Richard Thompson, 13 Rivers

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Ezra Furman, Transangelic Exodus

Ezra Furman , Transangelic Exod us Ezra Furman’s “Queer outlaw saga” wowed me at every turn. A concept album about a boy and his lover on the run from the law — after the lover undergoes illegal surgery to become an angel — Furman soars and rages his way through his most impassioned album yet. Fleeing the authorities in a red Camaro, his protagonists continually risk their lives in service to their love for each other and to their true nature. These are powerful, vulnerable songs, teaming with urgency but sweetened by magic. The album’s mysticism has its roots in Furman’s own spirituality — he’s an observant Jew who never performs Friday nights — and he liberally weaves clearly autobiographical elements into the story, which makes it all the more resonant. Like the best concept albums, the story never bogs itself down in plot details, so that its finer points aren’t necessary for the enjoyment of the individual songs. Furman’s new band, the Visions, blends the guitars, s...

Album Reviews by Stefan Wenger

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