Over many of his recent singles, Darrell Kelley has used the musical children of Africa – soul, funk, R&B, hip-hop – to talk about modern issues. Now, he turns his sights to the musical motherland herself. And so what we have with his latest single is a celebration of the sonic source, that continent from which all such music originally emanates. “Mother Africa” is the sound of modern musical voices finding their way back home.
If lyrically, he has used a sharp and honed voice to make poignant and necessary social comments, here the feeling is one of liberty, reflecting on the physical beauty of that place and its people, the musical forebears of the music he now works with.
Blending soulful guitar licks and massed and intertwinned choral voices, heat-hazed harmonics and a funky on-the-one bass push, skittering drum patterns and Kelly’s own voice sounding as much like a sacred rite as a celebratory song, it is a sublime soundtrack to, not just the place where so much music was born, but to the place that is the cradle of humanity itself.
“Mother Africa” reminds us of what a broad and adaptable music-maker Kelley is, and whilst we often find him looking at important issues and specific wrongs to right, he is also able to create the most universal, unbridled, and uniquely gorgeous soundscapes as a celebration of this ancient and awesome place.
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