Moor Mother - The Great Bailout - Vinyl LP

2024

Moor Mother's 2024 release The Great Bailout is based on the Philadelphia-based poet and activist's research about British colonialism and its aftereffects. She particularly addresses Parliament's Slavery Abolition Acts of 1833 and 1835. For the latter, the British government borrowed £20 million (now equivalent to £17 billion), one of the largest loans in history, in order to compensate former slave owners, rather than those who were enslaved.

The loan was finally paid off in 2015 using taxpayers' money, including the descendants of the enslaved, and in 2018, the Treasury posted a self-congratulatory tweet claiming that the taxpayers helped end the slave trade. Camae Ayewa's lyrics are visceral reactions to points such as these and the displacement of several generations of Black citizens. A lengthy and stellar list of collaborators help realize Ayewa's vision. Opener "Guilty" features ethereal harp from Mary Lattimore and backing harmonies by Raia Was as well as Ayewa's arresting, multi-tracked thoughts ("Did you pay off the trauma?"), while the majority of the ten-minute piece is given to Lonnie Holley's spacious and free-associative yet compassionate crooning.

The darker, illbient-sounding "All the Money" (produced with Vijay Iyer, featuring operatic vocals by Alyaal Sultani) pointedly namechecks several historical events and asks how they were funded. "God Save the Queen" (with trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and vocalist Justmadnice) criticizes British society's devotion to the royal family by sardonically asking whose life has more meaning than the Queen's.

Experimental noise/drone violinist C. Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core) adds post-industrial textures to the unsettling yet mesmerizing "Compensated Emancipation," one of two tracks featuring the spirited wailing of Mourning [A] BLKstar's Kyle Kidd. Maja S. K. Ratkje's disturbing chomps and growls during "Death by Longitude" propel Ayewa's aggressive, head-on verses questioning who was actually freed by the bailout. "Liverpool Wins," with disconcerting loops and feedback by noise master Aaron Dilloway, draws connections between British football culture, specifically the rivalries between cities, and the competitions between port cities during the slave trade. Compared to Ayewa's other releases, The Great Bailout isn't as accessible as her previous two efforts for Anti-, nor is it as hard or abrasive as debut Fetish Bones or her hardcore punk group Moor Jewelry. However, her concentration on an especially brutal historical subject makes it one of her most bracing works, and it becomes more compelling and powerful with increased intention and awareness.

Paul Simpson