(2020) Moor Jewelry - True Opera


Review:
True Opera is the second full-length recording by Moor Jewelry, a collaboration between poet and musician Moor Mother and producer and noise-maker Mental Jewelry. Both artists come from Philadelphia, and both have long been tuned into the city’s sonically diverse underground scenes. But True Opera is a significant departure in style and compositional mode from the duo’s earlier Crime Waves (2017). That record was a moody experiment in electronics, art-damaged samples and cavernously dubby spaces. It’s terrific — disorienting and strangely stylized. But True Opera dispenses with the laptops and effect boxes, in favor of the sound of songs rapidly written and played in a real room, by sweating, clenched hands. It’s all electric guitars, thumping bass, and percussion. It’s a punk record. True to punk’s alacrity and intensity, True Opera wastes no time announcing its intents and amping up its enraged energy. The title track kicks off the record, and over a jittery, fleet rhythm, Moor Mother growls, “In the midnight hour / I erase these cowards / Reclaim my power / There’s a gun in your mouth, true opera.” Fuzzy guitar fizzes up and gathers in from the edges of the mix, and soon the song has boiled over. Moor Mother shouts, “Damn right, it’ll cost you!” It’s not entirely clear who has earned her enmity, but the desire to inflict punishment is clear, and deeply compelling. Some other songs are more direct in their inventories of socio-political ills: on “Eugenics,” both artists shout, again and again, “Love is gone! / They will sterilize the future!” The song “Boris Godunov” references the 16th century Russian regent whose turbulent rule emptied into the catastrophic Time of Troubles, which in turn set the stage for the emergence of the Romanovs’ long, oppressive dominance. Also true to punk’s downhill momentum and D.I.Y. ethos, the sheer velocity at which True Opera moves makes it seem as if some of the songs are taking shape right in front of you, composed and coalescing on the fly. “No Hope” and “Judgment” recall the improvisatory thrill of Swell Maps and the bristling energy of Pink Flag-period Wire. Like the work of those bands, the longer you listen to songs like “Judgment,” the more density they reveal. Still, True Opera works best when Moor Jewelry play to their strengths. The standout songs on the LP are “Look Alive” and especially “Working,” tracks borne along by insistent rhythms, and by Moor Mother’s brilliant verbal riffing. She sort of sings, sort of chants, “Working, it’s working / All the screaming and dancing and fucking is working / It’s working / All the crying, all the screaming, all the fucking, all the shouting is working…” And so on. Look at the streets, in America’s cities, big and small. It seems to be working. Having a soundtrack like this sure helps.





Tracklist:



Media Report:
Genre: post-punk
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits