More Mather – “The Black Air Encyclopedia” (Rezension) – ByteFM

More Mather – Black Air Encyclopedia (ANTI-)

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There are teams and businesses that take a decade to reinvent themselves. Teams who need something like an eternity of slack to leave their comfort zone. Even experienced innovators like Radiohead took four years to go from “OK Computer” to “Kid A”. It takes time and energy to unleash what you’ve learned.

Then there is the Iowa kamai. The artist and poet from the US state of Maryland seems to completely reject the theme of the “comfort zone”. You will notice it first in their turbulent and often unpleasant music. But above all, it shows in the amazing range that Iowa covers under the artist name Moore Mather. The 2020 editions alone speak volumes. Within one year published: album As part of the free jazz collective “Irreversible Entanglements”. The LP Hype Grenade with the duo Moor Jewelry. One Abstract hip-hop record underground With rapper Billy Woods. Solo album based on one A written and self-performing stage play. One Collaborative live noise With avant-garde jazz composer Nicole Mitchell. This trend continues this year: Ayewa has already worked with acts as diverse as Sons Of Kemet and The Bug in the past few months. Moor Mother produces rap songs, sings, screams and scratches. And her mind is always in motion.

All of these very different projects were collaborative. But what does an adventurous artist’s solo album look like? Her fourth single LP shows that this question is not easy to answer. “The Encyclopedia Of The Air” is a work of music that just doesn’t fit in any stairs – which has transcended the concept of “stairs” since the beginning of her career.

Beyond all comfort zones

How would you describe an album like this? Perhaps author Mark Z. It is a list of all the things you don’t have or don’t have. In the case of Danielewski’s “House”, these are: no toilet, no wood, no windows, no lights, no sockets, etc. Siefu, but it’s still not a hip-hop album. Aiwa speaks of her lines with the charisma of a shocking poet, with more emphasis on words than on flow. The term “spoken word” does not fit either, since there is a lot of music in her voice. Strings and flutes sound like jazz, but it’s not a jazz album either. Drones, stuttering, and crackling noises remind us of barebones noise, Concrete music, but the LP isn’t smart enough for that.

what’s left? Perhaps one should describe what this music is less about, but rather what this music does. It evokes, as in the nightmare of Zami’s cog, which quotes the autobiography of African-American feminist Audre Lorde. It calms down, as is the amazingly fun instrumental “Mangrove” or “Iso Fonk”. She inspires through Iowa’s wonderful words. This poet’s words are both spiritual and political – in a few sentences she creates entire universes. “Gathered in a circle, my goal/collective work/my responsibility to earth, toward mischief,” says Shikiri. What is the “Black Air Encyclopedia”? An album that only a Moor Mother could create, outside of all comfort zones.

Release: September 17, 2021
Put the right word: ANTI-