The Night Of Power (Laylatu'l Qadri)
New Jersey studio whizz Dennis Matthews (aka Abdur Razzaq) recorded 'The Night of Power' at home in 1982, using a rickety Roland CR-78 drum machine, Fender Rhodes and a Minimoog to back up Rafiyq A. Muhammad's charged, spiritual poetry. Cosmic shit - one for fans of Sun Ra, Amiri Baraka or Gil Scott-Heron.
Described as "revelatory home-studio electronic jazz", 'The Night of Power' is a forward-thinking hallucination that blossomed from the radical politics of the era. Matthews assembled his warbling backdrop after hearing Rafiyq's idiosyncratic poems that were written in isolation before being spliced into a continuous document, warning of the dangers of emerging technology and calling for both the preservation of the world and the de-Europeanization of the USA - messages that might be even more relevant now.
The centerpiece is the title track, a 33-minute meditation that might outwardly come across as jazz, but absorbs elements that would later be rolled up into hip-hop, experimental ambient music and even techno. Matthews' use of the CR-78 is particularly brainy, harnessing its bizarre, tinny rhythmic lilt to provide a quirky metronome for florid electric piano jams and whooshing, cosmic Moog blasts. Rafiyq's vocals are the star, but they're lifted into space by Matthews' neo-exotica moves. And he gets a chance to shine solo on the short closing track 'Reflections from the Grave', turning up the CR-78's oddball percussion and lavishing it with the kind of slithering synth lines you'd expect to hear accompanying an early-'80s straight-to-VHS slasher. Well good.
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New Jersey studio whizz Dennis Matthews (aka Abdur Razzaq) recorded 'The Night of Power' at home in 1982, using a rickety Roland CR-78 drum machine, Fender Rhodes and a Minimoog to back up Rafiyq A. Muhammad's charged, spiritual poetry. Cosmic shit - one for fans of Sun Ra, Amiri Baraka or Gil Scott-Heron.
Described as "revelatory home-studio electronic jazz", 'The Night of Power' is a forward-thinking hallucination that blossomed from the radical politics of the era. Matthews assembled his warbling backdrop after hearing Rafiyq's idiosyncratic poems that were written in isolation before being spliced into a continuous document, warning of the dangers of emerging technology and calling for both the preservation of the world and the de-Europeanization of the USA - messages that might be even more relevant now.
The centerpiece is the title track, a 33-minute meditation that might outwardly come across as jazz, but absorbs elements that would later be rolled up into hip-hop, experimental ambient music and even techno. Matthews' use of the CR-78 is particularly brainy, harnessing its bizarre, tinny rhythmic lilt to provide a quirky metronome for florid electric piano jams and whooshing, cosmic Moog blasts. Rafiyq's vocals are the star, but they're lifted into space by Matthews' neo-exotica moves. And he gets a chance to shine solo on the short closing track 'Reflections from the Grave', turning up the CR-78's oddball percussion and lavishing it with the kind of slithering synth lines you'd expect to hear accompanying an early-'80s straight-to-VHS slasher. Well good.
New Jersey studio whizz Dennis Matthews (aka Abdur Razzaq) recorded 'The Night of Power' at home in 1982, using a rickety Roland CR-78 drum machine, Fender Rhodes and a Minimoog to back up Rafiyq A. Muhammad's charged, spiritual poetry. Cosmic shit - one for fans of Sun Ra, Amiri Baraka or Gil Scott-Heron.
Described as "revelatory home-studio electronic jazz", 'The Night of Power' is a forward-thinking hallucination that blossomed from the radical politics of the era. Matthews assembled his warbling backdrop after hearing Rafiyq's idiosyncratic poems that were written in isolation before being spliced into a continuous document, warning of the dangers of emerging technology and calling for both the preservation of the world and the de-Europeanization of the USA - messages that might be even more relevant now.
The centerpiece is the title track, a 33-minute meditation that might outwardly come across as jazz, but absorbs elements that would later be rolled up into hip-hop, experimental ambient music and even techno. Matthews' use of the CR-78 is particularly brainy, harnessing its bizarre, tinny rhythmic lilt to provide a quirky metronome for florid electric piano jams and whooshing, cosmic Moog blasts. Rafiyq's vocals are the star, but they're lifted into space by Matthews' neo-exotica moves. And he gets a chance to shine solo on the short closing track 'Reflections from the Grave', turning up the CR-78's oddball percussion and lavishing it with the kind of slithering synth lines you'd expect to hear accompanying an early-'80s straight-to-VHS slasher. Well good.
New Jersey studio whizz Dennis Matthews (aka Abdur Razzaq) recorded 'The Night of Power' at home in 1982, using a rickety Roland CR-78 drum machine, Fender Rhodes and a Minimoog to back up Rafiyq A. Muhammad's charged, spiritual poetry. Cosmic shit - one for fans of Sun Ra, Amiri Baraka or Gil Scott-Heron.
Described as "revelatory home-studio electronic jazz", 'The Night of Power' is a forward-thinking hallucination that blossomed from the radical politics of the era. Matthews assembled his warbling backdrop after hearing Rafiyq's idiosyncratic poems that were written in isolation before being spliced into a continuous document, warning of the dangers of emerging technology and calling for both the preservation of the world and the de-Europeanization of the USA - messages that might be even more relevant now.
The centerpiece is the title track, a 33-minute meditation that might outwardly come across as jazz, but absorbs elements that would later be rolled up into hip-hop, experimental ambient music and even techno. Matthews' use of the CR-78 is particularly brainy, harnessing its bizarre, tinny rhythmic lilt to provide a quirky metronome for florid electric piano jams and whooshing, cosmic Moog blasts. Rafiyq's vocals are the star, but they're lifted into space by Matthews' neo-exotica moves. And he gets a chance to shine solo on the short closing track 'Reflections from the Grave', turning up the CR-78's oddball percussion and lavishing it with the kind of slithering synth lines you'd expect to hear accompanying an early-'80s straight-to-VHS slasher. Well good.
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New Jersey studio whizz Dennis Matthews (aka Abdur Razzaq) recorded 'The Night of Power' at home in 1982, using a rickety Roland CR-78 drum machine, Fender Rhodes and a Minimoog to back up Rafiyq A. Muhammad's charged, spiritual poetry. Cosmic shit - one for fans of Sun Ra, Amiri Baraka or Gil Scott-Heron.
Described as "revelatory home-studio electronic jazz", 'The Night of Power' is a forward-thinking hallucination that blossomed from the radical politics of the era. Matthews assembled his warbling backdrop after hearing Rafiyq's idiosyncratic poems that were written in isolation before being spliced into a continuous document, warning of the dangers of emerging technology and calling for both the preservation of the world and the de-Europeanization of the USA - messages that might be even more relevant now.
The centerpiece is the title track, a 33-minute meditation that might outwardly come across as jazz, but absorbs elements that would later be rolled up into hip-hop, experimental ambient music and even techno. Matthews' use of the CR-78 is particularly brainy, harnessing its bizarre, tinny rhythmic lilt to provide a quirky metronome for florid electric piano jams and whooshing, cosmic Moog blasts. Rafiyq's vocals are the star, but they're lifted into space by Matthews' neo-exotica moves. And he gets a chance to shine solo on the short closing track 'Reflections from the Grave', turning up the CR-78's oddball percussion and lavishing it with the kind of slithering synth lines you'd expect to hear accompanying an early-'80s straight-to-VHS slasher. Well good.