Petite Noir – MotherFather

Petite Noir is the South African musician, based in Brussels, Belgium, who scales the line of overt and refined in an elusive genre that thrashes between post-punk and afrobeat. His second album ‘MotherFather’ is an exalting place that uncovers a dexterity of faith in a collection of tracks that positions duality as an endless source of freedom and power.

‘Who is Your God?’ echos on ‘Skit’, a bold punctuation that paces the album back to it’s core. The tracks collide and assemble to affirm the union of masculine and feminine in faith and the individual with cascading gospel-like vocals. Equal parts elusive, experimental with space for grace, this album governs the qualm of holding, at times, conflicting truths. The lyrics languid, with echoed reverb, strong drumming and continued dynamic, surprising composition throughout create a compounded alchemy of feeling.

His lived truth is exponentially felt, a map of the political as the personal:  an undone and freeing wave naming and honouring to carry us home.

8/10

Words: Rae Niwa

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