LISTENING TO - I Came From Love by Dave Okumu & The 7 Generations

 

An album that makes a bold striking statement about the black cultural experience, has a fine pedigree these days from artists as diverse as Kendrick Lamar and Beyonce. Dave Okumu & The 7 Generations album I Came From Love, adds another to that illustrious list. Reflecting on and through a broad kaleidoscopic view of history. Highlighting as it does so the exuberant musical legacy of the black sensibility, as much as the oppression that it often emerged defiantly out of. Surrounded by the monuments to cultural imperialism, in the streets of the towns where you live, as reflected back through the track - Streets.

Dave Okumu, though brought up in Vienna, has lived most of his life in the UK. And this album. I Came from Love, is a long ode to the search for self identity and self knowledge. Sometimes the tracks of ones past heritage get fractured and obscured when you are brought up in a Western culture. Particularly when the UK as a country and culture itself is in such a broken parlous state. Filter yourself through the system that you know - Eyes on Me.

Through the entire length of I Came From Love it has this languorous dystopian feeling, looking backwards and forwards simultaneously for an exodus and a vision for relocation. That sense of brokenness is both, personal, racial, cultural and political. Does anyone have any grasp on who they are collectively any more? The pain of a past of slavery and the pain of still not feeling accepted or valued even now. Using a poem by Amie Cesaire to capture that frustration and anger on My Negritude

Okumu, has a pretty impressive career considering he is not publicly that well known. His songwriting, producing and musical collaborating is extensive, working with Amy Winehouse, St Vincent, Jesse Ware and King Sunny Ade to name but a few.. His first album with The Invisible was Mercury Prize nominated in 2009.  And the imperious voice of Grace Jones features on the opening tracks of I Came From Love - Two Things, and the haunting track - Seven Generations.

What brought me to this album was an appearance by Okumu & The Seven Generations ft Eska of Amnesia on Later with Jules Holland. What hooked me was that metallic fractured string of a guitar sound, which is not on the album track unfortunately. It was a storming performance that gave you a great sense for the diversity and stylish power that this album has.

 

How am I supposed to love a nation with a broken heart?

CARROT REVIEW - 7/8