Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band - Rubber Orchestras (2011)

“The griot is the sound of universal culture.” The opening words of his new album are key to understanding the universe of Anthony Joseph, a poet and musician born in Port of Spain on 12th November 1966 – the day of the Hindu festival of Diwali, which celebrates the passage from darkness into light. This anecdote sheds some light on the life of this preacher-soothsayer inhabited by a vision of the world as a cosmic whole where music creates an organic communion. He grew up on an island full of troubadours, oral legends and carnival convulsions before setting out across the Atlantic and arriving in Great Britain in 1989. He soon became a city man, but never forgot his country roots. A record collector and lover of Great Black Music, from blues roots to deep house, the Londoner soon made his mark on the ‘black rock’ scene, then in the spoken word movement, all the while refining his writing, as can be seen from his first poetry collection, ‘Desafinado’, in 1994, followed four years later by ‘Teragaton’. Anthony Joseph cultivated a distinctive style, Creole in nature, drawing on every form of artistic expression. In 2004 he was selected as one of 50 black and asian authors who have made major contributions to contemporary British literature to pose for the photo ‘A Great Day in London’, which mirrored the famous jazz picture taken in Harlem in 1958. That was the moment things really started to take off for this wizard of sound and sense as he girded his passions into a single project.

Tracklist:
1.01 - Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band - Griot (6:57)
1.02 - Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band - Started off as a dancer (6:05)
1.03 - Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band - She is the sea (8:09)
1.04 - Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band - Cobra (5:44)
1.05 - Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band - Tanty Lynn (6:11)
1.06 - Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band - Bullet in the rocks (4:49)
1.07 - Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band - Money Satan (8:36)
1.08 - Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band - Speak the name (8:01)
1.09 - Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band - Damballah (7:34)
1.10 - Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band - Generations (12:44)
1.11 - Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band - Bossa for Dalston (bonus track) (8:06)