Nana’s Sunday Jams: Buddha - Anthony Joseph and The Spasm Band

Published on 2020-09-13 00:00:00 by Nana Fani-Kayode

Banner a_rtwork by the majestic Trav, all of Nanas jams are gathered in_ this playlist.Yes Yes Yes Sunday Jammers. Feels like it’s been a while. How are you doing? How are you feeling? Hope you are managing to stay upright in the madness and that some of the Sunday Jams have been aiding your journeying. So back on the labels tour, about three more stops to go in this round then thinking of switching it up in the countdown to the end of the year, so keep on reading.This week’s selection comes courtesy of a sublime Musician, Poet and Writer; Anthony Joseph and The Spasm Band. It’s the opening track from the debut album Leggo de Lion and it bangs, bangs, bangs. I had the very great privilege of interviewing them a few years ago when I hosted a radio show. They crammed into the tiny studio and set the room on fire. They stayed for the majority of the two hours and by the end I was wrapped up tightly in post gig euphoria took a happy while to come down, every time I listen to it I am taken straight back to that small, sterile studio that was transformed and made electric by the poetic flippery of Anthony Joseph, accompanied by The Spasm Band’s enveloping, biting, hella funky, psychedelic sound. It’s one of the highlights of my time in radio – along with interviewing poetic Wonderkid Kayo Chingonyi, who, by the way, is also an immense MC along with being a Poet of incredible depth, talent and charisma but that is for another time.So, this album led me to the label that housed it: Kindred Spirits. The brainchild of KC the Funkaholic, a musical heavyweight in his own right and conduit through which many others have passed through, notable ones for me include Tony Allen, Peven Everett, Theo Parrish and Jameszoo to name a few. Once again, I came via an introduction, stayed for the rest of the catalogue and was filled with the vibe. This label was named after his club night in Amsterdam, felt like it was moulded and guided by love. Just all feels so deliciously interconnected and organic, the right kind of ingredients for producing high calibre musical gorgeousness.The track is ‘Buddha’ and its everything. It’s an in your face funk fuelled offering, taking psychedelic twists and turns while Joseph narrates a tale about his father, using images, symbolic totems and patois to tell the story of the mans journeys. It’s a trip through, over, under and around mysticism mixed with memory. He paints a picture of a man, a place and space that is both fluid and static. Its intoxicating. Towards the end of the track it’s like he is closing his eyes, calling out to The Spasm Band to funk it up even more allowing him to hold tighter to the image; the calamity and the seduction of the sea. Pure heaven and perfect listening. You will find funk, you will hear the influences of Sun Ra, Fela Kuti, jazz abandonment along with rock infused bass riffs but never feels referential, it belongs to Joseph; pure funkadelic goodness.Give it a listen, you will hear Joseph move seamlessly through the personal and political matched at every turn by The Spasm Band. During the interview Anthony described a mission to create ‘liquid texture’, accomplished Mr Joseph, done.Check out the rest of his work at anthonyjoseph.co.uk. Lots of Sunday love and enjoy.