Exuma - Exuma
Wednesday, January 13, 2016 at 1:03PM 8.5 - Bahamas - 1970
Calypso-tinged, acoustic proto-freak-folk from a Bahamian hybrid of Captain Beefheart and Richie Havens. The opening track, "Exuma: The Obeah Man", is indeed quite fantastic: Exuma's powerful, scratchy voice is propelled along by a steady acoustic strum and lilting percussion amidst a billowing cloud of backing vocals and assorted atmospheric sounds. The rest of the album follows suit. Somewhat like Dr. John (albeit without the knowing wink), Exuma's Obeah-fuelled raspy chanting has a bit of a dark undercurrent, a tinge of vengeful voodoo. Second track (and album highlight) "Dambala" offers this pronouncement to any "slavers": "You won't go to heaven / You won't go to hell / You'll remain in your graves / With the stench and the smell." Fantastic stuff.
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