Reviewed by John Cheek

The first act that I saw live at my first Greenbelt festival was Ben Okafor in 1990. At Greenbelt he was joined on-stage by guitarist Simon Law for the final song of the set. Law founded brave independent label Plankton Records, who over time were to release many of Okafor's albums. Things have now come full circle in that Okafor was invited to perform at the 50th Greenbelt festival in August 2023. Now Plankton (and the other founder, Keith Dixon) are involved in this new album from the Nigerian-born singer and guitarist. It's a welcome return. I was aware that Okafor had put out an album of love songs a few years ago and I'd heard rumours that for a long while he was doing more acting than music. But now he's back with a reggae album and an explicit proclamation of Christian faith, to boot. This reboot is a luxurious listening experience, a lush pallet of multi-rhythmic invention providing the sonic background to lyrics that occupy the grounds of the personal, the spiritual and the political - in the case of the latter, the title-track and "Mum I Swear" being examples of what hard-core reggae fans can relate to. Yet there is no Rastafarian claptrap spoiling the feast, and on 'Politic YoYo' clear references to Jesus, Messiah and faith abound - although Okafor prefers to refer to our Lord as Jah rather than Jehovah. At times, it all sounds familiar and in "21st Century Wailing" we have an updated take on his "20th Century Wailing" song from 1986 - although this is a superior take on the original. A standout track is the ska-tinged "World Gone Crazy" with its Selector flavour and beat that gets you on your feet. Accompanying the veteran are The Liberators: a large, loose collective with Roger Innis and Mark Stevens playing a wide range of different instruments and Amaka Okafor, Chrissy Lemonte and Carolyn Maloney tickling the listener's ears with some lovely extra vocals. There aren't many weak points - the chorus of "Beware Of The Snake" doesn't stand up to the amount of repetition it's subjected to. But overall, this is a strong return and, hopefully, bodes well for the future and for more quality releases.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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