London-based saxophonist
Nubya Garcia's 2020 full-length debut,
Source, was a stunning, kaleidoscopic work that explored the connections between the thriving modern jazz scene and the composer's Afro-Caribbean roots, harmoniously blending dub reggae, cumbia, neo-soul, and several other genres into a powerful meditation on family history and identity. In addition to collaborating with fellow boundary-pushing jazz luminaries like
Makaya McCraven and
Shabaka Hutchings,
Garcia has worked extensively within a club music context, guesting on recordings by artists such as Australian house producer
Harvey Sutherland and U.K. garage/grime veteran
Swindle.
Source: We Move is a short but diverse remix collection, further expanding the scope of the original album while keeping its message intact and continuing to honor
Garcia's heritage. Broken beat pioneer
Kaidi Tatham starts off the set with a sparkling revision of "La cumbia me está llamando," which subtly shifts through different rhythms before landing at a heart-racing conclusion filled with shuffling percussion.
Nala Sinephro's brief, wondrous mix of "Together Is a Beautiful Place to Be" plucks some of the original's saxophone and places it in an orb of harps and echo effects, along with some momentary drum breaks.
DJ Harrison's "The Message Continues" collides more killer breakbeats with filtered sax melodies, basking in effortless good vibes.
Georgia Anne Muldrow and
KeiyaA both inhabit more abstract spaces with their trippy reworkings --
Muldrow goes for a wonky Los Angeles beat scene approach, frequently fading the beat in and out, while
KeiyaA loops pitched-up, chattering voices and threads the track with dubby, pulsating beats. Suricata and
Dengue Dengue Dengue both explore the cross-section of dub and electro-cumbia, with the latter's mix of "Source" holding the heaviest bass weight. Finally, visionary drummer
Moses Boyd ends the set with a phenomenal drum'n'bass reworking of "Pace," comfortably setting
Garcia's cascading saxophone to slamming breakbeats and trickling guitars. While
Source was an epic labor of love that clearly felt like the culmination of extensive soul-searching and constant refinement of the artist's craft,
Source: We Move is far more spontaneous and off-the-cuff, recontextualizing snatches of the compositions in the postmodern tradition of hip-hop and dance music culture. The remix collection is considerably more fragmented than the cohesive original, but it's no less forward-thinking, and is well worth the time of anyone who was bowled over by the proper album. ~ Paul Simpson