Choose artist...
Stories   >   Sons of Kemet - Black to the Future makes San Francisco Chronicle '6 albums that stood out in 2021'

Stories for December 07, 2024

Top 10 for Dec

More Albums with Sons of Kemet

Sons of Kemet - Black to the Future makes San Francisco Chronicle '6 albums that stood out in 2021'

Posted: December 22, 2021

The San Francisco Chronicle's Adrian Spinelli writes….Sons of Kemet had one of the year’s best records with “Black to the Future.”

An Afrofuturist jazz statement of the highest order, “Black to the Future” is a masterful instrumental display that teems with Black power. At the forefront of the modern U.K. jazz movement, the four-piece Sons of Kemet is led by composer and multi-instrumentalist Shabaka Hutchings, and this album is a moving tribute to his Afro-Caribbean roots. Theon Cross’ tuba bellowing harmoniously with Hutchings’ clarinet and sax on “To Never Forget the Source” is one of the most sublime pieces of music you’ll hear this year.

The equally powerful “In Remembrance of Those Fallen” plays deeper into the pair’s dichotomy, but with a tribal lean, as Hutchings adds a flute to his cadre of woodwinds, while drummers Tom Skinner and Eddie Hick round out an incredible arrangement. “Hustle” features British rapper Kojey Radical over a dancehall beat that illustrates the group’s stylistic diversity in this unmissable release.

SEE THE San Francisco Chronicle PAGE