mama odé: tales and patterns of the maroons

As per usual, any work from the brothers Reginald Omas Mamode IV and Jeen Bassa has a very deep spiritual message and texture attached. Mama Odé is their collaborative project - releasing Tales and Patterns of the Maroons via Five Easy Pieces - and explores that inherent spirit that runs through their impressive output. At its core this LP has a classic hip hop approach, inspired in the Golden-Era-Rap vocal flows, A Tribe Called Quest and Slum Village, but goes beyond such influences to fit their investigations into afro drum patterns, house music and jazzy grooves. All bound by one thread: “a timeless belief in rhythm as a universal language”.

Of Creole descent from a group of African islands that transiently have hosted many settlers, west African slaves, colonialists and the potentially indigenous East African-Malagache Maroons, they take on that “language” to produce a very unique piece of art - where hip hop, jazz, funk, blues, reggae and afro-beat are present with fluidity. The album’s deep grooves overwhelmingly seed optimism, subscribing to a positive future drawn from historically multi-ethnic ancestral lines. Unity, love and well being as well as a conscious questioning of humanity’s ill practices and ideas are the main themes in Tales and Patterns of the Maroons. Along with Al Dobson Jr, Henry Wu, Mo Kolours and Tenderlonious, Reginald Omas Mamode IV and Jeen Bassa the main acts delivering “a sound that traverses the jazz and lo-fi beats continuum, heavy on percussive elements and informed by countless non-Western musical culture”. Via Five Easy Pieces, Tales and Patterns of the Maroons is available in vinyl.