The release of this album came about almost by accident. Haitian-born composer, percussionist and turntablist Val-Inc (Val Jeanty) had no plans to pitch her music in the marketplace, saying: "I strive to create music that impacts the psyche with esoteric noesis" .
The album was a commission of sorts, coming as a result of an invitation in 2007 by Innova Records who wanted to make use of windfall they had received from a payola lawsuit.
Working mainly in the experimental, improvisational field, she's an artist who operates outside the confines of narrow genre definitions. For want of a term to describe her sound she calls her music 'Afro-Electronica'.
The music was partly produced through the Artist In Residence Program of Harvestork's Digital Media Arts Center, New York. Tracks were composed live in a studio and date from 1997. Some go back to her first sampler, nothing is later than the year 2000.. The concept and words were tagged on later, being added to create a storyline of sorts linked to women's perspective on American society from the past to the present.
The album is dedicated to Val's sister Mimi who died in 1989, the fight against HIV/AIDS and "the fight against the oppression of all Native Tribes on planet Earth".
It is a political work in the best sense of the word, lying beyond clichéd propaganda or empty sloganeering and instead voicing a spirit of resistance and opposition to the misguided values of corporate culture. For its tone of simmering, barely concealed rage, the music reminded me of the uncompromising radical rap of Ursula Rucker.
Val-Inc has a particular gift for combining voice samples with music. Like Steve Reich, she isolates key phrases and through repetition of individual words gives them special significance. Two tracks use samples from the late Anne Sexton who before her suicide in 1974 was praised (and criticised) for the raw candour of her poetry.
In 'Musik', Val-Inc replays a line from Sexton's poem 'Music Swims Back To Me' : "A radio playing and everyone here was crazy", highlighting the unique characteristics of Sexton's
voice which was laconic and world weary yet also very sensual.
The track which most successfully blends word and music is '@' . This boldly juxtaposes tortured introspection of Anne Sexton's poetry with the forthright preaching of former slave Sojourner Truth (1797 - 1883).
Sexton's are from the opening stanza to her poem 'Her Kind':
"I have gone out, a possessed witch,
haunting the black air, braver at night;
dreaming evil, I have done my hitch
over the plain houses, light by light:
lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind".
Truth's come from the address which contained her most famous words - "Ain't I a Woman?" - delivered in Ohio in 1851:
"Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man didn't have nothing to do with Him. If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and turn it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them".
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The skill in placing these remarkable literary sources in a contemporary musical context exemplifies the intelligence and ambition of Val-C's concept. It's refreshing to find an artist willing and able to make use of words of genuine substance in this way.
In 'Sinz', she uses a powerful plea for change by poet Parker Sargent. The principle message here is that while "man has supreme advantage of knowing his own history" this knowledge has not been used to further progress. Instead mankind is stuck in a loop complacent consumerism and "pornography of the mind and body". In calm but emotionally charged tones, the question is asked:"Are we capable of change?"
'Damba' incorporates a sample of a self-help reading by Jocelyn Engle: 'You Want to Improve Your Speech'. Engle is a TV celebrity talk show host as well as being a speech and image consultant to rich and powerful figures in the world of business and entertainment. Via her website Engle promises to "improve the way you speak, eliminate unwanted accents, and create a charismatic and powerful image and personality". Placed in a fresh context,, however, Engles' tips seem less libertated personal growth and more akin to an endorsement of a modern form of slavery. The implicit message is that survival depends on conforming to a corrupt and unfair system. The fact that institutions are also male dominated is doubtless why Val-Inc focuses on Engle's instructions on how to pronounce the word 'man'.
On 'Faces' Vicki Newsum's seductive vocals and Stephen Hall's lyrical soprano sax on 'Faces' are given extra edge by the juxtaposition of words from a speech delivered by Sojourner Truth's to the Equal Rights Association in 1867. In this she criticised the complacency of those who wanted slavery only partly destroyed; Truth's response was to declare in no uncertain terms: "I want it root and branch destroyed".
In the space of just under thirty minutes Val-C creates an intense, claustrophobic world that lays bear to inconvenient truths that underlie American culture. Her sense of rage against the machine is rendered all the more powerful by virtue of the contrast between the cool, jazzy vibe of the music and provocative passion of the language.
It is a superb album which eloquently reminds us that the personal is political.
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