#algiersband

What’s black and white and red all over? (A race riot?) Or, the visual for the latest Algiers release, Can The Sub_Base Speak?. When I get asked what bands I  think more people should try out, Algiers is at the top. Critically acclaimed but still underground, they’re a little genre defying. Vocalist Franklin James Fisher calls this out throughout the first verse eventually getting to,  “Yeah I see, it’s kinda like gospel punk, soul rap, doom soul. What is this fusion? More like con-fusion”. Despite this already prevailing “confusion” of sounds (gospel vocals imposed over post-punk music, usually) the chameleonic band has once again shifted sounds for this heavy-hitting release.

When you listen to an Algiers track it’s sometimes too easy to glide away into the sounds and forget that these individuals are using their music to curate important discussions about race and equality. This track doesn’t let you do that. The collaboration with Skeik Sin Carne on saxophone and D’Vonne Lewis on drums has a solid jazz sound in the foreground but calls on the chaos of jazz, scat, and historically black music to support the punk noise in the background. Before we even start talking about the vocals we should appreciate how this layering reminds us where the origins of that punk noise which is so often associated with white bands and musicians actually comes from. That’s the last subtlety that you’ll get from the song, however, as the vocals go on in racially charged language that we assume is targeted at Franklin and his band; asking questions that seek to disenfranchise Franklin’s own experience as a black person because of how he might have grown up, dresses, speaks, or the type of music he makes. About halfway through the speaker shifts to someone using their relationships to deflect accusations of racism or allow for inclusion in a space that is not theirs to enter. It’s the sort of song that can make you uncomfortable no matter who you are, but that’s where the importance of it lies. It’s a beautiful work that exists in the sphere of jazz and spoken word but doesn’t even let you get comfortable with anything as the sounds jump around. 

Coming off of a 2 year pause since their last release this is definitely a break from their established sound, but an on-par strike at the establishment and “identity politics” that the song calls out while at the same time touching into the “structural politics” it claims they’re often missing. Needless to say, it’s left me hoping for an album or EP announcement soon, or at least a touring return stateside to see another of their outstanding performances. 

Other recs for a quick dive into the band:

Blood

The Underside of Power

Plague Years (ft. Travis Ono)

The Cycle/The Spiral: Time to Go Down Slowly