The Album Club: "We Be All Africans" by Idris Ackamoor and the Pyramids
 

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Psy-Fi's picks usually go down well. Here's another. Rate, vote, discuss, debate and review here.

Some of the songs feel more like sketches than a full picture. The beginning to "Clarion Call" especially. It's going nowhere for most of the track. There's an incredibly basic sliver of an idea that isn't significantly built on. I guess that's what happens when you're just a little too proud of a single little riff.

Nice enough sound quality and the blend of instruments feels novel, but at the same time, some of the jamming feels pretty standard and loses me after a while. Real talk: The worst thing I can think of in music is drum solos. The second worst is aimless jamming.

"Traponga" is little bit of not a lot. I thought it was gonna really start doing something, but then it ended before it got going.

The few more fully realized tracks so far tend enough towards repetition that I suspect they're intended as dance tunes. They'd be fine for that, actually, but I'm getting fidgety trying to listen to this album on it's own.

The last track starts out with a pretty nice vibe going for it, but I'm also reminded how I'm not a massive fan of any of the singers on this album. It was worse in the opening track though - in which I felt like the vocals were constantly, slightly off-key.
Yeah, the last track is fine. I like it. The rest of the album doesn't do a whole lot for me. As an album, this doesn't feel like a substantial musical project, but a half-assed doodle.

8/10 for the last track.
4/10 for the rest of the album.

It's a "meh" from me.

Great ensemble-oriented spiritual jazz that doesn't making any glaring missteps. The only sin it commits is it is pulling so hard from the Pharoah Sanders' late 60's sound with a touch of On The Corner-era Miles Davis that it sometimes comes across as pure idol worship rather than trying to do anything that justifies its own existence. But that's where personal perception comes into play: what I just described at criticism could easily be levied at some of style-derivative albums I enjoy in my own favorite genres.

Clarion Call was my favorite cut overall: a freakin' zither of all things showed up in the second half and that's just awesome.

7.5 out of 10

Good ear!

This is a direct baton pass from the masters: Art Ensemble of Chicago and Cecil Taylor mostly

You can hear Pharoah Sanders, Fela Kuti, Albert Ayler

Pure as virgin snow - beautiful- soulful

10/10 obviously

At first I thought it was just OK. There were things about it that were likable. When I got to track 4. Rhapsody in Berlin, the drums and rhythm guitar reminded of another song. So I went about searching for the song. Didn't find an exact match. My initial hunch was either Look Ka Py Py or Cissy Strut, but let's be realistic those songs are twenty times more funky. Yeah, those songs completely done me in for the night. When I went back to "We Be All Africans" I couldn't take any of it anymore. I should have just stuck to the album, and not wonder off from it trying to figure what song Rhapsody in Berlin reminded me of. So thanks The Meters for ruining this album for me.

meh

Maybe you need Prozac

That sounds ocd af

Why do I need Prozac? Cause track four reminds me of another song? Cause I prefer The Meters over this? Get bent.

I gave it a fair shot. In comparison to other music I realized it was only middle-of-the-road. motr=meh

When I hear a motif that I can’t place and drives me nuts I think it’s an ocd thing and it’s one of the few things you can’t google.

I also think you’re lowballing the record but that’s not why I said that and I meant it more as just a joke.

Lacks in grammar.

It's called "Ebonics" or "Blammar" depending if you are talking about phonics or grammar respectively. "We Be All Africans" is acceptable Blammar. Honestly you should be hip to that fact, and it shouldn't bother you enough where you have to point it out.

How exactly does one low ball an opinion? Do you believe members of the Album Club 2017 should eschew personal opinions for group think?

Isn't that what people mostly do around here? :laughing:

Yes. That’s exactly what I meant.

One of several above-average jazz albums that The Pyramids have released since the early 70's.
Listening to this, I heard nods to Sun Ra, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Pharoah Sanders, Herbie Hancock ("Rhapsody In Berlin" reminds me of parts of Herbie's song "Watermelon Man") and although I didn't happen to think of Cecil Taylor while I was listening, Idris Ackamoor was a student of Cecil's when he was teaching at Antioch College in the late 60's and early 70's so the connection is definitely there.
Thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish. My only minor disappointments were that the tune "Traponga" didn't develop into something a bit more more interesting and that the song "Whispering Tenderness" didn't continue for a bit longer than it did.

9.5/10

1. What were your VERY FIRST impressions on listening to the album, say from the first five minutes in?

Super cool! Love this!

2. What did you think of the opening track?

Really liked it, hoped it would set the pace for the rest of the album.

3. What did you think of the next track?

Really nice. Interested that it ended up being an instrumental. Some of the sax on it reminds me, unaccountably, of Vangelis on Apocalypse des Animaux.

4. Did you like the vocalist? Hate him/her? Any impressions? (see note 1)

Decent. Couldn't say I loved, definitely did not hate.

5. Did the music (only) generally appeal to you, or not? (see note 2)

Yeah mon.

6. Did the album get better or worse as you listened to it (first time)?

Dropped a little in quality; well to be honest got a little boring

7. What did you think of the lyrical content?

Didn't really care enough to listen properly.

8. Did you like the instrumental parts? (see note 3)

Aye

9. What did you think of the production?

N/A

10. Did you know of this artiste prior to listening to the album, and if so, did that foreknowledge colour your perception of this album?

No and no

11. Is this, generally, the kind of music you listen to or not?

No

12. Assuming you listened to the album more than once, on repeated listens, did you find you liked the album more, or less?

Quite a bit less


13. What would you class as your favourite track(s), if you have any?
Title track, "Epiphany"

14. And the one(s) you liked least?

“Silent Days” bored me a little. Very dreary and repetitive And from there, pretty much everything else bored me.

15. If the album in question is a debut, did that fact allow it, in your mind, any leeway, and if so, was that decision justified or vindicated? (see note 4)

N/A

16. Are you now looking forward to hearing more from this artiste, if you have not heard any of their other material?

I don't think I'd be in too much of a rush to

17. Were you surprised by your reaction - positive or negative - to the album?

Sort of. It's Psy-Fi. His stuff usually impresses me so I was surprised it bored me so much.


18. Did the album end well?

Nah, I'd lost interest long before then.


19. Do you see any way the album could have been improved?

I just think it wasn't for me, to be honest

20. Do you think the album hung together well, ie was a fully cohesive unit, or was it a bit hit-and-miss?

No idea.

4/10. Sorry. A big Meh here.

I forgot to review this. Excellent spiritual jazz with a heavy afrobeat element that licks the sticky. Some tracks overstay their welcome and they're not breaking any new ground at all here, but honestly they don't have to. 7/10