– THE MILITARY COUP –

When an actual black-coloured flower was apparently first-created in 2010, it made a lot of green-fingered people shout until they were blue in the face. “But the anthocyanins in a petunia’s foliage can only produce red and blue pigments” they argued to anyone who would listen. Which wasn’t many people, probably. As such, so went the argument, the flowers’ petals were, in reality, a very, very dark purple.

The marketing men didn’t care; “For the customer it’s the intrigue, it’s sexy, it’s something different” claimed some busy-body from the horticulture firm which developed the flower. And, as any good fashionista will tell you, anything goes with black.

Perhaps it was this story that led a jazz band from exotic Belgium who create music that merges Oriental and Ethiopian scales with Romanian and Maloya (a traditional music from the island of Réunion) influences to name themselves after said flower. Or perhaps they just thought it sounded “sexy” and “intriguing”.

If so, they hit the nail on the head, as Future Flora – the latest single and closing track from the band’s upcoming album of the same name – will attest.

A seductive belly-dance, snake-charmed into life by the saxophones and flutes of Nathan Daems, cornet of Jon Birdsong and keyboard of Wouter Haest, it spends its 13-minute run time teasing different emotions from the listener, all the time underscored by the Darth Vader-invoking bass of Filip Vandebril.

It’s menacing, it’s magnificent and, much like the blasphemous blooms referenced in my introduction, almost impossible to pigeon-hole.

The album comes out April 12 courtesy of Sdban Ultra.

More From This Week’s Mix:

DJEUHDJOAH & LIEUTENANT NICHOLSON | “EL NINO”
JPEGMAFIA | “THE WHO”
THE COMET IS COMING | “SUPER ZODIAC”
KENDRICK SCOTT ORACLE | “>>>>>>>>>VOICES”

You can find all of the tracks reviewed above in the 45 Revolutions per Minute playlist below or click to access the 45 RPM Playlist on Spotify itself.

If you like what you hear (or even if you don’t), please engage in dialogue with me @45rpm_Reviews on Twitter. And, if you’d like to receive updates weekly, please subscribe to the email list to get these recommendations sent to your inbox weekly.

– SV –