The fifth album by South London’s jazz and roots collective Soothsayers finds them still celebrating the reggae sounds they embraced with third outing, One More Reason. Gone are that record’s guest vocalists, but the core group sound more confident in their own singing, songwriting and genre-splicing than ever before.
Where immediate predecessor Red Earth Dub was all sound and studio wizardry, here trumpeter Robin Hopcraft, saxophonist Idris Rahman and singer Julia Biel’s voices intertwine over rhythms that sit at a previously uncharted meeting point of roots reggae, Afrobeat, soulful pop and dub. Their harmonies carry lyrical themes of loneliness and nonconformity, of standing up for nature and for oneself.
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