Anthony Joseph new album - Caribbean Roots

I copped a single off this album a few months back, it's a great Caribbean tune called Neckbone. It's one of two tracks streaming on Bandcamp ahead of the album dropping later this month...

"Strut team up for the first time with acclaimed French label Heavenly Sweetness for the brand new album by the celebrated poet, novelist and musician, Anthony Joseph.

Caribbean Roots represents an uncompromising return to his roots for Joseph, who has always remained true to a powerful, deep-seated sense of his own Caribbean identity. Starting out as a joint project with the outstanding percussionist Roger Raspail (Cesaria Evora, Papa Wemba), the album swiftly grew into a major work incorporating the rhythms, sounds and vibes that rock the Caribbean from San Fernando, Kingston and Les Abymes to Port-au-Prince and Havana.

Backed by a band made up of a blend of musicians with Caribbean origins or connections, the album attempts to unite the different islands into a single entity without diluting any individual strand. "The idea, heard so often," says Joseph, "is that the Caribbean is a fragmented region, socially, politically, historically. In my view, it's a unified space, with more relations than disparities. The album is asking Caribbean people to consider that their roots are in the Caribbean, that their generations run deep and that now, we can claim it as ancestral space."

'Caribbean Roots' is released on Heavenly Sweetness / Strut on CD, LP and digital on June 24th. Pre-orders are available now.