The title of A Tribe Called Red’s third album, We Are The Halluci Nation, might suggest a different type of record than the one on offer. You can picture a young happy-go-lucky electronic music fan picking it up expecting a collection of trippy tones to chill out to but instead getting an album of powerful protest music set to pounding beats.
The trio of DJ NDN, Bear Witness and 2oolman establish right off the bat what the deceptively playful title is really about, with a touching spoken word bit by the late activist and poet John Trudell. Trudell came up with the title specifically for the group, and managed to record his contributions shortly before losing a battle with cancer.
Trudell and novelist Joseph Boyden’s appearances both result in some of the most moving spoken word interludes and skits you’ll ever hear on an album of dance music, but the other collaborations are also highly effective. Their previous record, Nation II Nation, was a reaction to the Idle No More movement, while this time they’ve enlisted partners from all over the world to take a look at colonialism, capitalism and racism from an array of perspectives.
Hip-hop influences feature more heavily than before, thanks in part to contributions from Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def), Shad, Narcy and Leonard Sumner. The group also pushes further into the experimental electronic pop world via collaborations with Tanya Tagaq, Lido Pimienta, Saul -Williams, Maxida Märak and others.
Traces of the more populist side of dance music are evident, but their deconstructions of traditional pow wow music play a much bigger part, including contributions from Northern Voice, Chippewa Travelers and Black Bear. The result is unapologetically political party music that proves cross-cultural collaboration can escape the common traps of exotification and exploitation.
Top track: Indian City (featuring Northern Voice)
A Tribe Called Red play the Phoenix December 9.
