Irreversible Entanglements cover

Irreversible Entanglements

Released

It should tell you nearly everything you need to know about Irreversible Entanglements’ vision of liberation that they formed to play a Musicians Against Police Brutality event and only grew more furious from there. Fronted by rapper/poet Camae Ayewa (a/k/a Moor Mother) and backed by a four-piece band deeply conversant in free jazz, the self-titled debut seethes with the kind of escalating, noisy tension that masks both a deep sorrow and a barely-holding-on exhaustion. Ayewa damns the systemic failures of American capitalism and the brutal omnipresence of racism (“Chicago to Texas”) and police violence (“Enough”) with the fervor of the angry young idealist and the depth of the longtime activist, scoffing at cruelties and injustice with a hard-earned contempt that meets the bleakness of the subject.

Nate Patrin

From its opening snare roll to its scorched-earth conclusion, the debut by this furious quintet — poet Moor Mother, trumpeter Aquilles Navarro, saxophonist Keir Neuringer, bassist Luke Stewart, and drummer Tcheser Holmes — grants the listener not a moment’s rest. Collectively improvised at the group’s first gathering, it has the righteous energy of classic free jazz, Moor Mother’s declamatory verses the cries of someone who’s in hell but plotting a revolution.

Phil Freeman

Suggestions
Dimensional Stardust cover

Dimensional Stardust

Exploding Star Orchestra, Rob Mazurek
Heritage Of The Invisible II cover

Heritage Of The Invisible II

Aquiles Navarro, Tcheser Holmes
Sketches and Ballads cover

Sketches and Ballads

Various Artists, Full Blast
Mama And Daddy cover

Mama And Daddy

Muhal Richard Abrams
Orange Fish Tears cover

Orange Fish Tears

Baikida Carroll
Codona 3 cover

Codona 3

Collin Walcott, Codona, Naná Vasconcelos, Don Cherry
Unit Structures cover

Unit Structures

Cecil Taylor
The Complete Machine Gun Sessions cover

The Complete Machine Gun Sessions

The Peter Brötzmann Octet
The Peach Orchard cover

The Peach Orchard

In Order to Survive, William Parker