Who Sent You?
| Who Sent You? | ||||
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| Studio album by Irreversible Entanglements | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | International Anthem | |||
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Format (s) |
LP, download |
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Title (number) |
5 |
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running time |
43:22 |
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| occupation |
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Studio (s) |
Kawari Studios, Philadelphia |
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Who Sent You? is a jazz album by the formation Irreversible Entanglements . The recordings, taken on March 1, 2019 at Kawari Studios, Philadelphia, were released on March 20, 2020 on International Anthem . It is the group's second album (after their 2017 debut album of the same name).
background
The Philadelphia poet and musician Camae Ayewa works as the Moor Mother ; In her music she compresses hip-hop , funk , industrial, electronic and noise influences and processes “centuries of brutal injustices” in her lyrics. "Slaveship Punk" is what Camae Ayewa calls her music at the moment: "The lyrics of the singer from Irreversible Entanglements revolve around slavery and the liberation from it, but also about the undiminished discrimination against African Americans in the USA today".
The roots of the group's second album, Who Sent You? , are made clear in an essay titled "Time Pockets" that Ayewa wrote for Space-Time Collapse Vol. II: Community Futurisms . The ideas in the magazine, devoted to Black Quantum Futurism ( aka Afrofuturism ) and featuring insights from various artists and activists, correlate directly with many of the ideas explored on the album: preserving community in the face of disenfranchisement, gentrification and systemic injustice. "The voices of the residents all reflect and vibrate the same feelings," she writes. "They say: We are being pushed aside by inadequate conditions, bad landlord policies, and we are expected to be grateful for that."
The poems and vocal contributions by Camae Ayewa (alias Moor Mother ) are musically supported by her bandmates Keir Neuringer on saxophone, Aquiles Navarro on trumpet, Luke Stewart on bass and drummer Tcheser Holmes .
"Stay on it, do not give up" (German Hang on, do not give up ) are the first words of Camae Ayewa alias Moor Mother in the opener. "The Code Noir - Anima" is the name of the following song after the notorious decree Code Noir , which was published under the reign of Louis XIV and regulated the inhuman treatment of slaves from 1685 to 1848. With this in mind, Moor Mother develops the following questions: How long will it take before African Americans have enough? How long will they be treated like they have been treated for so long ?: When will they revolt?
Track list
- Irreversible Entanglements: Who Sent You?
- The Code Noir / Amina 7:30
- Who Sent You - Ritual 14:45
- No Más 7:58
- Blues Ideology 8:22
- Bread Out of Stone 4:48
Camae Ayewa wrote the text. The music was composed by Keir Neuringer, Aquiles Navarro, Luke Stewart and Tcheser Holmes; “Amina” is a composition by Keir Neuringer, “No Más” by Aquiles Navarro.
reception
Steve Futterman said in New York that Moor Mothers expressed righteous anger in poetry was in the tradition of Amiri Baraka's "Black Dada Nihilism," a piece from the New York Art Quartet's 1964 debut album. America, whatever Time, never suffer from a lack of social outrage to inspire poets, and Moor Mother has much to say. She dominates the album with her observations on racial discrimination , weaving her words between the exciting rhythms of Stewart and Holmes and the sparse but pointed melodic lines of Neuringer and Navarro. However, their strength lies in their reluctance; she impresses for the most part with her intricate lyrics and not with any extreme vocal power.
Frank Sawatzki ( Musik Express ) thinks the album evokes memories of the “unlimited possibilities” open to black artists, both in terms of the rich history of jazz and in its expansion through young narratives of hope and confrontation. " Irreversible entanglements literally embody the options of movement in their punk of jazz, in this sound room the melodies fly to shreds, there is no going on as before."
Martin Schray is in his review of Who Sent You? of the opinion that the album shows in the choice of music that free jazz also has a function today; if the problems of African Americans in today's society were similar to those of the 1960s, it would be legitimate to revert to the music of the period. On the one hand, the band is reminiscent of the Ornette Coleman Quartet - especially the music on the Ornette album ! (1962). “No Más” begins with a simple trumpet and alto saxophone phrase in which Keir Neuringer and Aquiles Navarro sometimes alternate and sometimes play in unison, which evokes the spirits of Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry . On the other hand, the band referred to "When The Sun Comes Out" (1963) and "The Magic City" (1965) by Sun Ra Arkestra in their title "Who Sent You - Ritual", which begins with a free climax . The musicians thus proved that they operate in a context that ties in with a tradition.
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The whole album is a dream of redemption from racism, Schray continued, it is the dream of “Afrofuturism”, but it is also about exposing the alienation in US society (“at what point do we call each other 'other '"). It is the most obvious reference to Sun Ra at this point, but this is only the experimental side of this tradition, the other being Max Roach's and Abbey Lincoln's "Triptych: Prayer, Protest, Peace" (on We Insist! Freedom Now Suite , 1960) and Charles Mingus '"Free Cell Block F,' Tis Nazi USA" (on Changes Two , 1975). Irreversible entanglements , Schray hopes in the review for his Free Jazz Blog , could reach a younger audience with their music and open their ears to free jazz (not only thanks to the fact that they are an incredibly close-knit band), as the determination of Ayewa's voice reminded me of the Last Poets , especially at the end of “Who Sent You - Ritual” and “Bread Out of Stone”. Here the music is mainly carried by drums, bass and vocals and forms a bridge to hip-hop .
According to Andy Beta, who reviewed the album on Pitchfork , Ayewa's approach as a member of the jazz ensemble Irreversible Entanglements has changed; “As the format expands, she knows that she can convey the same urgent information at a much slower pace so that the group [...] can take it to new places. She chooses her places in the music accordingly and underlines each of the five extensive compositions on the album. ”Perhaps the most remarkable characteristic of the group, according to the author, is that anger is omnipresent, but that it is mitigated, the music is focused and controlled. The screeching, beating characteristics of free jazz would often be interpreted as unbridled anger, which, as in the heights of the civil rights era and in the inner-city unrest, increased. And while Irreversible Entanglements fall back on this tradition, the band is not just imitating an older version of jazz. They now vibrate it and emphasize it as ritual music, much like Ayewa's other preferences, like gospel and blues . It conveys the whole urgency of her raw, earlier work now through a larger perspective, not bound by time and yet entirely in the present.
Andrew Forell wrote in Dusted that the album made an extraordinary statement, both lyrically and musically. It encompasses “history, politics, religion, violence and, above all, how power structures encompass everyone, changing both the oppressed and the oppressor and burdening us all with lies, complicity, deception and self-censorship. Ayewa constructs her poems like an experienced diagnostician, aware of the interconnectivity and interdependence - the irreversible entanglements, if you will - that are required to maintain institutions designed and operated for the few. The musicians draw on free jazz, afro beat , funeral marches, blues and much more to produce a sound that is as violent, conscious, intelligent and challenging as the [spoken] words ”.
Jan Paersch wrote for Kultur News that on their second album, the quintet from Chicago "continues to tread the musical path that Kamasi Washington and Shabaka Hutchings have started to strike in the jungle of couch potato jazz ." In terms of content, Who sent you? even more radical than the previous album and tie in with the poems and manifestos of great Afro-American poets. “Political music can hurt, especially when it is performed with such convincing urgency,” praises the author, without asking the extent to which the possible political function can be traced back to music or to the synthesis of poetry (lecture) and Music. He is even of the opinion: "If Sun Ra had teamed up with Anti-Flag , it would have resulted in Irreversible Entanglements ."
Zoe Camp says in Daily Bandcamp that Irreversible Entanglements built their musical-textual performance on the album as "liberation technology" to take over a term from Ayewa - but ultimately it is up to us to get this machine running.
According to Chris DeVille, Irreversible Entanglements are best at the moments when Aweya is turning generational trauma into vivid exhortations and her bandmates seem to spontaneously revise reality. The album offers occasional retreats into calm that allow the listener to catch their breath, “but in its most exciting passages the band races forward, bursts with urgency, collides and burns, but never goes completely off track. It is the sound of human life that ruthlessly progresses through turbulence - dodging, pivoting, recalculating in real time and then flying back into the future. "
Jeff Terich wrote in Treble that the last track on the album, “Bread Out of Stone”, is a fundamental statement about hope and survival, about how past generations have done in times of crisis, but contrary to the rhythmic repetitions it points to the ability of Group to develop magic with the help of improvisation. That in itself is inspiring and although the music of Irreversible Entanglements contains tension and sharp social criticism, there is also joy. It's not just about knowing where to direct your frustration, it's also about the importance of partying.
Andy Kellman gave the album four stars in Allmusic and said that not everything on the album was an expression of anger and contempt; the final “Bread Out of Stone” is calm and meditative, if by no means fleeting. Especially “No Más” is outstanding; Holmes and Stewart got into an intricately knotted funk groove, the composers A. Navarro and Neuringer beamed with a shared sense of liberation, and Ayewa speaks of "Infinite possibilities that come back - I know we are more than circles." “Uplifting, even life-affirming,” concludes Kellman.
Web links
- Information about the album at Bandcamp
- Listing of the album on Allmusic (English). Retrieved July 25, 2020.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Andy Beta: Irreversible Entanglements Who Sent You? Pitchfork, March 28, 2020, accessed on July 21, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Jan Paersch: Irreversible Entanglements Who Sent You? Culture News, March 18, 2020, accessed July 21, 2020 .
- ^ A b Zoe Camp: The Revolutionary Free Jazz of Irreversible Entanglements. In: Daily Bandcamp. April 2, 2020, accessed July 26, 2020 .
- ↑ a b c Martin Schray: Irreversible Entanglements Who Sent You? Free Jazz Blog, March 6, 2020, accessed July 21, 2020 .
- ↑ Irreversible Entanglements: Who Sent You? The New Yorker, May 6, 2020, accessed June 7, 2020 .
- ^ Frank Sawatzki: Irreversible Entanglements Who Sent You? Musik Express, March 20, 2020, accessed on July 17, 2020 .
- ↑ Andrew Forell: Irreversible Entanglements Who Sent You? Dusted, April 16, 2020, accessed on July 21, 2020 .
- ↑ Chris DeVille: Irreversible Entanglements Who Sent You? Stereogum, March 17, 2020, accessed on July 21, 2020 .
- ↑ Jeff Terich: Irreversible Entanglements Who Sent You? Treble Zine, April 6, 2020, accessed July 21, 2020 .
- ^ Review of the album at Allmusic (English). Retrieved July 25, 2020.