Chaos Theories

Hell hath no fury like a brassy sextet from Ottawa when riled. This, their ninth album since getting together in 2002, is a full-frontal lyrical and musical assault on our current global dystopia. ‘Gridlocked in a deadlock’ goes the refrain on the decidedly dreadlocked ‘General Strike’, with its echoes of The Specials' ‘Ghost Town’. Coloured by sumptuous horns, ‘Slumlord’ also blends reggae into the band's trademark Latin and Afrobeat mix. Disco, too, has been a more recent string to the SJO's heterogeneous bow, and the four catchiest tracks of the album – ‘House of Cards’, ‘Boat Rockers’, ‘Sky High’ and ‘War Games’ – all get deep into the groove. The last of these dissolves raucously into an atonal baritone sax solo halfway through. Sudden squalls of free jazz add fire and brimstone to a conceptual Afro-punk aesthetic very much in evidence on the opening ‘Charlie Foxtrot’ and ‘Police the Police’.

And yet it's the long, beautiful lament on album closer ‘Well Runs Dry’ – with intimations of jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim and the band's first, most lyrical album for Strut – that arguably makes the biggest impression. ‘Never miss your water till the well runs dry...’ One hopes that this band's musical well will never dry up.