There’s a John the Baptist quality to The Ark akin to a manifesto that’s a soul-searching secularised blueprint for our fractured times. Anthony Joseph walks and talks with the spirits. In a complete communion Archie Bell and the Drells, Ted Joans, Benjamin Zephaniah, Charles Mingus and Bob Kaufman are some of the residents of the pantheon suitably revealed and exalted among crunching beats and rock of ages grooves.
Upon the banks of an inconsolable river
An Afrofuturist concept album that mixes personal autobiography with imagined black history and future possibility. Guitarist Dave Okumu of The Invisible produces. Guests of the poet-vocalist-songwriter’s Anthony Joseph’s are Eska Mtungwazi, Tom Skinner of The Smile, Byron Wallen, Nick son of Dave (ex Billy Jenkins head) Ramm, and long time AJ compadre free jazzer Colin Webster. The materials grew from Okumu’s demos and loops that Joseph later developed into lyrics and a full studio session with Okumu’s band.
If you are into Sun Ra, Funkadelic and wider black cosmic traditions then this is up your street. I think of hearing Tony with Jerry Dammers’ Spatial AKA as a guest which was stimulating. It’s more manicured and better produced than before. And while definitely worth it go back to rougher but even better Spasm band stuff like ‘She Is The Sea’ for the real earthy building blocks in AJ’s back catalogue.
A remarkable artist seizes the agenda as so often. There’s a reach for the transcendental. You’d be a fool not to listen.
