Sex Pistols and Suburban Press collaborator Jamie Reid and Simon Emmerson (Afro Celt Soundsystem) both tragically passed away in 2023. Before they parted, they hooked you with the iconic producer Youth to make ‘Ancestors’, the premier release on Youth and Alan McGee’s new label ‘Creation Youth’.
*Artwork courtesy of Creation Youth and Danny Watson
KLF’s tribal beats and Massive Attack’s grooves combine in the early part to conjure a hedonistic freedom worthy of Transglobal Underground. The bass-heavy grooves decay into a more destructive John Robb (The Membranes) sonic in the second half alongside a primitive Shapeshifter-era Robert Plant howl.
There’s a timelessness and purity to ‘Ancestors,’ which takes it from Castlemorton to 1968 to Don Letts. Stone Grove and Janette Sewell’s vocals are battle-weary after the last fourteen years but resilient. Frayed but stern in their defiance. Their belief in something better. Their hope for change!