The Sons of Kemet deliver insidious riffs, intriguing textures, and a whopping beat fuelled by Oren Marshall’s whooping eccentricities on amplified tuba and the close interplay of drummers Seb Rochford and Tom Skinner.

The project, masterminded by saxophonist/clarinettist Shabaka Hutchings, is partly an exploration of roots – the only cover, a dignified and hymnal “Rivers of Babylon”, lays bare the Afrocentric connections under investigation. References to Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano and Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa broaden horizons and “Adonia’s Lullaby” reveals a gentler, somewhat bucolic side.

Sons of Kemet

Burn

(Naim)

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