Seven Souls

Material’s fourth album took the band off in yet another new direction: this one a fusion of Western avant-funk and musical traditions from various areas of the Middle East and global south, including Gambia (singer Foday Musa Suso), Palestine (Fahiem Dandan, Simon Shaheen), and Senegal (Aiyb Dieng). Beat writer William Burroughs is here as well, reading selections from his novel The Western Lands. It all adds up to a funky, strange, and pancultural collage of beats and sounds and one of the most interesting of Material’s albums.