Language Electric

This is not Jhelisa Anderson’s most adventurous record - she’s making more radical music than ever in the 2020s. And it’s not her most immediate - its 1994 predecessor Galactica Rush with the mighty “Friendly Pressure” pips it to the post there. But it captures a moment of the Mississippian settling into a groove with utmost confidence. She’d been in the UK since the late 80s, singing with the likes of Soul Family Sensation and The Shamen, and connecting with Dorado Records, where Acid Jazz met jungle and UK garage. But here, she found something particular in the British psyche - in particular inspired by Tricky and Martina Topley-Bird, and unlike many happy to use the phrase “trip hop”, which she referred to as “a British blues” - all of which permeates the low and slow soul of this insidiously brilliant album.