NOW by Damon Locks & The Black Monument Ensemble

Best Tracks: Now (Forever Momentary Space)
Genre: Post Jazz, Sound Collage
Year: 2021

Much like Red Burns, NOW is a record I’ve had to sit with for years before I could even articulate what I loved about it. The first time I heard it, I felt it was a rather unassuming jazz/hip hop record. For some reason though, it wasn’t forgettable. I kept revisiting it to try and form an opinion, and each time, something new would jump out and make me rethink how I felt about it.

Now almost 3 years later, I think Damon Locks is one of the most creative artists alive. I hear bits of Sun Ra and Madlib, but the end result enmeshes so many genres of black music (and a bit of white music in musique concrete) that it sounds like nothing else ever made.

The sampling work is on such a large timescale that it is almost closer to arrangement. Locks turns his band into samples, and gradually weaves their performances into seamless tapestries. Everything has been coloured by Lock’s sampler, overlaying a uniform hue across the whole album. NOW has vocal harmonies so warm you can feel their heat on your skin, and woodwinds so mellow they sound like they’re coming through an AM radio station. The tracks blend together perfectly, maintaining energy across the record like a masterful DJ keeping the crowd going at a party.

I’ve heard NOW dozens of times, and not once have I anticipated its ending. Sometimes the music slowly fades out of my concentration until I eventually notice its over. Other times, I focus so intently that I get lost in the music, and relax in the silence as I hear the Black Monument Ensemble walk out of the studio at the end of “The Body is Electric”. Either way, it feels like Damon Locks has me figured out, and created something that forces me to slow down and appreciate the here and NOW.