Rowing Up River To Get Our Names Back: Double Vinyl LP

Pre-Order Item. Release Date Subject to Change.
Label: Heavenly Sweetness
Release Date: 7th February

Legendary British poet, musician, novelist and all-round head Anthony Joseph teams up ace producer Dave Okumu for his most fiercely fire record yet. It's an Afrofuturistic jazz, funk and dub monster, booming out the speakers with the same power of Anthony's pointed and historically loaded prose. This is a special record.

Poet, novelist, musician and academic, Anthony Joseph teams up with
legendary UK producer Dave Okumu for, 'Rowing Up River To Get Our Names
Back'

Dave Okumu, known perhaps best as frontman for The Invisible , though digging
deeper into his production credits, huge names emerge such as; Grace Jones, Amy
Winehouse, Jesse Ware, Rosie Lowe and Eska. On this album, the magic and alchemy
of Dave's production style showcase subtle sonics and deep layering resulting in a
contemporary sound to carry Anthony's Afrofuturistic metrical meanings.
 
Anthony and Dave first came across each other when working with Shabaka
Hutchings during Covid broadcasts, and then after Anthony performed some poems
on Dave's 2023 album 'I Came From Love', the seeds of collaboration were sown. With
a little more psychedelia, a little more experimentation, Dave's eclectic vision focuses
on the actual sounds on these pieces.
 
LP opener 'Satellite' is a fine example of how this new partnership pans out. New
musicians have been enlisted; Dan See (drums), Aviram Barath (synths), Nick Ramm
(Fender Rhodes) and Byron Wallen (trumpet). Add to that the mighty vocal power
house of Eska and we have a whole new dimension of soul and depth, to carry
Anthony's statements.
 
On the album's second single, 'Tony' - there's a nod to all drummers and creators of
African rhythms, from the point of view of Afrobeat legend Tony Allen. Highlighting
this is drummer's drummer Richard Spaven as Dave's choice of skin beater. He
successfully reminds us that Tony was someone who understood the real power of
rhythm and how it is used to unite people. As well as the new musicians on this LP ,
Dave Okumu played all the guitars and used the studio as his tool.
 
'Rowing Up River To Get Our Names Back' is not a follow up to Anthony's previous
album, but more a development of his 2006 novel, 'The African Origins of UFOs' a
book where experimental elements of Afrofuturism, metafiction, science fiction,
surrealism, mythology are rewritten in Anthony's innovative language. Look out for
Volume 2 also coming in 2025.