Land of Kush - Monogamy

Land of Kush
Monogamy

The second Land Of Kush LP suffers from none of the trappings that one commonly associates with a ‘difficult second album’. It is a bold and assured record, entirely caught up in its own created universe, reflecting back onto our own. None of this is surprising, group conductor and central composer Sam Shalabi has carved a reputation for his uncompromising approach to musical dialectics and has been a central figure in Montreal’s free jazz and improv scene. The recorded material he is associated with has often focused on a perceived dichotomy between East and West – an outward manifestation of Shalabi’s own cultural liminality.

It is warming to see Shalabi cast in the setting of a large ensemble once more. The middle-eastern improv group Shalabi Effect, with whom he cut his teeth, always performed with a sense of the grandiose, and their compositions were akin to epic poems: subtle expressions being refashioned in spectacular style. After exploring latent Islamophobia (Osama, 2003) and attempting contemporary Arabic pop (Eid, 2008) in his solo material. The first Land of Kush record epitomised the struggle between East and West, arcing its movements around the narrative of Thomas Pynchon’s epic metafiction Against The Day. The group could contain anything between 20 and 30 musicians, the compositions stretching the 20 minute mark- and the band adeptly demonstrated Constellation Records’ continuing desire to showcase momentous, avant-garde works.

Casting his critical eye on how Western societies construe intimate relationships, and in particular, offering an elaborate deconstruction of monogamous sexual practise – this is an unquestionably bold record, both musically and conceptually. Opening track ‘The 1st and the Last’ is evocative of place, mindset – it is ultimately a transportative moment that sets us for the album’s mediations. ‘Scars’ follows, a 17 minute number that builds to a climatic moment around the track’s midpoint, a tight riff-led string groove as djembe’s bounce an incessant rhythm.

A woman’s voice recalls moments of deviancy, her voice digitally altered to a crisp, monotone, expressionless lull – she gets filthier, recounting sexual misadventures and barking smut. It’s an interesting idea, presenting this wholly NSFW material as devoid of any humanising elements. The effect is one that borders on what Jung would call The Uncanny, we recognise the intonation and the semantics, but the monotonal, digitised recital effectively sucks any symbolic meaning from these lewd, sexual references. We are forced to reprocess our own conceptions of sexuality through the disembodied recounting of another’s.

Throughout the record, lyrical position is maintained in it’s specificity, it never attempts to generalise or offer summation of what Shalabi is thinking – rather it offers you individual characters’ own perspectives, flawed and subjective as they may be.

Land of Kush

Monogamy juxtaposes its heavily orchestrated moments with those of improvisation and free-jazz. It may be that set against each other like this, a listener’s palette is refreshed and kept in a state of hunger- but there’s an experiential reason for it, too. We are kept moving constantly, like a radio needle flicking between channels, embracing chaos before ruminating on specific moments.

Over Monogamy’s 66 minutes, the range of thematics and musical styles is remarkable. Yet even when incorporated numerous female vocalists of differing range and ability, Shalabi coalesces all these individual parts into a cohesive whole. It won’t appeal to all, but that’s been Shalabi’s calling card- his uncompromising eclecticism and devout artistry being the very thing his fans respect in him. In terms of critical content, it’s hard to say what Monogamy’s resolution may be, but then perhaps it doesn’t offer one so boldly- perhaps it is enough to meditate on these troubling matters and let conclusions present themselves in time.

By Amir Adhamy

Monogamy is out now on Constellation.