They come from Belgium, but look at Africa. Warned at the always stimulating SDBAN, Ghent label which is a reference for the most hybridized Nu jazz, the black flowers reach the sixth album with a sound that continues to change while remaining recognizable. Quintet led by the flute and sax of Nathan Daems, they live together Ethio-JazzAfrobeat and Middle Eastern spices within geometric but free, elastic, moving plots. As the title suggests, “Kinetic” is a record on the dynamism of the interlocking, on the movement that unlocks.
There title trackwhich opens the disc, immediately puts things in the clear. The flute is exploited in its raw grain, flanked by the equally lashing breath of the electric organ, and everything moves on a polyrhythmic structure, with the bass to constantly dialogue with percussion. Exoticism is not a decorative setting, but a harmonious principle that becomes a structure: just think of the jump of three semitons from Arab scale, as unsettling as it is organic. But it is in “conundrums” that the band really refines the art of overlap: i loop They slip on each other and the architecture, static only apparently, deforms with elegance, opening spaces to wind and keyboards that launch themselves into unexpected deviations.
The Afrobeat soul goes on in “Monkey System”, which combines a groove desert, calm but incisive fairy counterpoints and it Spoken Word of the guest Maskerem Mees. In “Underwave”, then, the legacy of Fela Kuti becomes even more present thanks to the deferred of the Bassotuba that makes its way between organ turns, scratchy stamps and electronic plots that clearer without stopping.
But the Black Flowers also have a more contemplative side, and “Violet drift” is proof of this. The flute sings an almost blues theme, lazy and night, then leaves the field to a curbophone that makes its way to small shots, between suspensions and ripples. It is another way of making things flow: working on the breaks, breaths, on a psychedelia that does not need effects and knows how to expand even without raising the voice.
An attitude that reflects the entire disc, and that also made itself known in the beating heart of the contemporary Nu jazz: in the United Kingdom, where the tastemaker Gilles Peterson has been supporting them for years and the sound of the band has achieved stages and frequencies of worship, from BBC Radio 3 to Worldwide FM. A recognition built on a consistency that knows how to vary its center of gravity. And in doing it, change shape at every step.
30/04/2025
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
