Since 2015, Belgium's Black Flower have been cranking out innovative albums that meld Afrobeat grooves with Ethio-jazz, Afro-Latin rhythms, steamy electronic dub, neo-psychedelia, and modernist jazz. Led by composer and multi-instrumentalist Nathan Daems, the front line also features trumpeter Jon Birdsong (dEUS, Beck, Calexico) and a rhythm section that includes new keyboardist Karel Cuelenaere, bassist Filip Vandebril, and drummer Simon Segers. The band's second album to appear on the beat-conscious SDBAN Ultra, Magma stands in maximal contrast to its four subtler predecessors.
The title-track opener slinks into aural view with syncopated, off-kilter beats and snare rolls. Sub-Saharan jazz enters a complex weave atop rolling snares, digital dub, and a mean organ solo, all before the horns prance a snaky melody atop a spacy Afrobeat groove. Single "O Fogo" commences with layered pan flutes atop breaking Afrobeat snares, a humidly delirious bassline, stacked dubby pianos, organs, and synths. Daems' C-flute twins itself, offering a solo and an alternate vamp simultaneously. The organ picks it up and enters a pulsing duel with the drum kit. "The Light" is deeper and darker as Daems juxtaposes an incantatory kora with muted cornet and flute. "Deep Dive Down" is introduced by angular synths and a blurry flute that sounds like it emerged from one of Jon Hassell's Fourth World albums. Rumbling hand percussion, synthed atmospherics, and a hovering trumpet frame Daems' flute as an Eastern groove emerges, then gives way to jaunty, futurist funk. Sultry single "Morning in the Jungle" features a lovely vocal performance from 21-year-old Belgian singer/songwriter Meskerem Mees (she took home 2021's Montreux Jazz Talent Award). Cuelenaere cross-stitches pulsing organ and sequenced synths atop a funky yet languid bassline. Birdsong's trumpet leads Mees' singing to a spoken nursery rhyme segment and back to deliver elegantly sung verses atop the band's dubby Ethio-jazz. "The Forge" is a swirling mass of steamy nocturnal Afro-funk and jazz noir shot through with knotty Middle Eastern modalism from the horns and skittering keyboard work that unfolds into a glorious electric piano solo. Closer "Blue Speck" is offered from the rhythm section up. Multiple layers of hand and kit drums enter call-and-response dialogue with moaning flute lines, a muddy, slapped-up bass, and organ chords that seem to breathe as they meet choppy synth stabs. They eventually commingle and morph into a modal blues processional framed in Eastern overtones, before emerging again to engage a sultry Middle Eastern soul-jazz conversation you can actually dance to. Though Black Flower's first four albums are all worth hearing -- and more than once -- Magma exists on a different creative level. No longer content to weave seemingly disparate parts in creating a seamless soundscape, Black Flower expose their edges plainly here, allowing friction and kinetic improvisational energy to flow between players. These more spontaneous yet exquisitely crafted pieces represent an entire holistic sound world constantly in the process of harmonic, rhythmic, and lyrical creation.