GEORGIA ANNE MULDROW plays Wrongbar on Sunday (March 25) as part of CMW. See listing. Rating: NNNN
A silky sample from Where’s The Concern For My People, by Philly soul group Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, immediately sets a conscious tone on the latest album from free-form singer Georgia Anne Muldrow.
Produced entirely by avant hip-hop producer Madlib, Seeds is her first album as a vocalist on another producer’s music. (Usually she self-produces.) It’s a natural pairing both artists grapple with the weight of history, Muldrow bluntly articulating the socio-political elements in Madlib’s source material. On the Curtis Mayfieldesque Kali Yuga she wails about our present dark age over a cyclical, grimy groove, and puts a geopolitical spin on the slick romance of Best Love.
The rollicking and densely layered samples send Muldrow – whose vocal style draws from jazz, soul and gospel – in an unabashedly funky direction, resulting in some of her most emotionally satisfying vocal arrangements and full-throttle rock ‘n’ roll dramatics to date.
Top track: Kali Yuga
