Matthew E White and Lonnie Holley - Broken Mirror: A Selfie Reflection

The Guardian 0

(Domino)
White’s funky discord finds its perfect soulmate in Holley’s melodies on this semi-improvised five-track outing

The singer and visual artist Lonnie Holley endured an Alabama childhood so appalling it would strain credulity in fiction. He found success in later life as an instinctual artist, creating work from waste. Since 2012, when he made his recorded music debut, Holley’s second creative career has flourished as his free-associating, jazz speak-sing delivery has found new contexts.

This five-track collaboration with Virginia-based producer Matt White is semi-improvised, with Holley decanting the content of his notebooks in loose, inspired, one-take flurries. His open-ended melodies touch on humanity’s solipsism, its over-reliance on tech, on our poisoned air and water. Throughout, there runs a deep vein of Afro-futurism that connects this non-aligned music to electric jazz and P-Funk; Gil Scott-Heron’s 2010 album, I’m New Here, is a close cousin.