DeForrest Brown Jr. aka Speaker Music returns to Planet Mu with a surprise new album Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry, that the label says is one of the most important of the year. All proceeds from the record go to Black Emotional and Mental Health (BEAM) and the Movement 4 Black Lives.
The record is an urgent call to action with skittering drums and harsh and modern rhythms, exploring poet Tsitsi Ella JajiI’s concept of “stereomodernism.”
The ominous presence of police is felt in the background of many tracks, whether it is police radio or police sirens. Those radios and sirens are especially unsettling for Black men and women who know that an interaction with police can lead to death, including bullets in your back (warning some of these videos will be graphic and triggering).
The album is gritty, harsh and jarring. The drums race around you in a dizzying blend of techno, free jazz, experimental and industrial rhythms. It isn’t supposed to be comfortable and soothing. There is nothing like that going on. Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry challenging the status quo and the current white capitalist system, including techno dominated by white dudes. So if you are uncomfortable, good.
The album arrives in digital and physical formats, including a 45 page pdf of collected writings from Black theorists and poets that provide further context to the ideas in this album. Get it on Bandcamp.
