August 1791

Led by Richard Morse, proprietor of the celebrated Hotel Oloffson in Port-au-Prince, RAM were last heard from before the disastrous Haitian earthquake of 2010, so the band's sixth album marks their welcome return. The date in the album title celebrates the start of the revolution that transformed the French colony of Saint Domingue into the republic of Haiti, the first country in the Western hemisphere to be governed by former African slaves. The dozen tracks mine a rich folkloric heritage of Creole and voodoo roots and fuse them with electric guitars and a contemporary rock sensibility.

The opener ‘Danmbala Elouwe’ is a jubilant version of a ceremonial piece transported to Haiti centuries ago by West African slaves and appropriately topped with some spiralling Congolese soukous guitar. ‘Badji Feray’ is an exuberant setting of an old folk song celebrating the wisdom of the revolutionary leader Toussaint L'Overture, irresistibly sung by Morse's wife Lunise. ‘Otsya’ is a rollicking chant turned into a hypnotic slice of polyrhythmic voodoo roots-rock. Above all, there's a joie de vivre to every track that is a testament to the extraordinary resilience of the Haitian people.