Dedicated Men of Zion – A Change Is Gonna Come
Genre: Retro Soul, Funk, Americana
Similar artists: The Staples Singers, Rev. Osagyefo Sekou, Charles Bradley, James Brown
Where do you buy your soul these days? To paraphrase Beatle George, you can’t just go and buy a mantra from the supermarket. Similarly, you can’t go looking for your soul down the long aisles. You boss, nor your employer can be expected to help. You certainly won’t find much of that on the news, but rather a confusion that will lead to panic. Fear is the ultimate weapon used against finding your soul.
The ones that engaged in various spiritual exercises as a means to obtain their liberation have always been ridiculed, at best, or forbidden, at worst. Even as an ambassador of the ungodly forces of rock music, I can tell you that the same is going on these days.
In other words, music with soul is needed. Also, greater trust of the people making this music is required. Dedicated Men of Zion’s A Change Is Gonna Come carries its beliefs on its sleeve. But, that’s not the most striking thing about the track. The most striking element is the incredible singing, born out of the North American soulfulness that also helped breathe the blues, funk, and, yes soul music. Without those where would we be today? Probably, even more, afraid and banging on wooden tables for entertainment.
Komodo – Barbarians
Genre: World Music, Indie Rock
It’s only when you have the misfortune of seeing history happen before your eyes, that you start to realize how unimportant trends really are. When it comes to all forms of modern music, trends seem vital. Having a single that didn’t feature distorted guitars in the 90s, was almost as unthinkable as not including EDM elements in a single in 2022.
This too shall pass, the wise men and women of music seem to say. There are sounds that have always been there. And, just like history seems to sway back and forth, offering few real surprises for the ones that can properly read it, so too does art flow in a way that is, ultimately predictable.
Komodo is a band from the highly liberal country of Holland. Barbarians, as well as the work to be found on their debut set of singles, are the group’s stance against typically Western pop-music tropes. Their interest in World music, in instruments atypical to pop music, their fascination with folklore, make them musical barbarians. Komodo aren’t living in the present. But, they sure have an idea about the past and the future.
