A City Called Heaven: Afro-Psychedelia in Gospel, Reggae, Acid Rock and Funk

In the second episode of our third series, Tim and Jeremy describe a psychedelic aesthetic appearing in the transformative and rapturous musics of the American Black church, Rastafarian Jamaica and Nigeria, with reference to Gospel, Juju, Reggae and Funk. They counterpoint this with a strain of musical antipathy with roots in Plato and iterating in radical Protestant tendencies throughout history, while also pointing up the specific and slightly scary millenarianism to the utopias imagined through the tunes discussed.

Tim and Jeremy also spend a good amount of time on the West Coast Acid Rock scene, contemplating the edginess of the sound and it's representation of paranoid psychoactive experiences; the musical expressions of Caribbean Brits in the early '70s; and touch some more on Afro-Futurism, with specific reference to the playful childlike energy of space-facing Parliament-Funkadelic.

Tim Lawrence and Jeremy Gilbert are authors, academics, DJs and audiophile dance party organisers. They’ve been friends and collaborators since 1997, teaching together and running parties since 2003. With clubs closed and half their jobs lost to university cuts, they’re inevitably launching a podcast.  Produced and edited by Matt Huxley.

Tune in, Turn on, Get Down!

Tracklist:

Mahalia Jackson - A City Called Heaven
The Staple Singers - This May be the Last Time
The Voices of East Harlem - Shaker Life
Love - Revelation Santana - Toussaint L'Ouverture
Cymande - Dove
King Sunny Adé - 365 Is My Number / The Message
Nairobi Sisters - Promised Land
Parliament - Mothership Connection (Star Child)

and some reading for this week's episode:

Jayna Brown, Black Utopias: Speculative Life and the Music of Other Worlds, Duke UP 2021
Christopher Waterman, Juju: A Social History and Ethnography of an African Popular Music, University of Chicago Press, 1990
Craig Werner, A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race and the Soul of America, Canongate 2002