Jad Abumrad

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He's singing about all the injustices of post-colonial Africa.

He's calling out dictators by name.

He's giving sort of broad history lessons.

Well, it's great to be here, and that means a lot, Terry.

Thank you.

I mean, early on what he would do is he would build a loop slowly.

He would bring in the bass, and then he'd bring in the congas, and then he'd bring in the shaker, and then he'd bring in the rhythm guitars, and sometimes there were three or four rhythm guitars, 30 different people on stage, and he would build the loop very, very slowly.

And as a listener, it can be quite monotonous.

But then there's this moment where you stop wanting it to change and you just give in and suddenly you fall out of time.

And you could be listening for four minutes or four hours.

You don't know.

So there's an element of trance to his work.

Then what will happen typically is.

As at some point when you are deep in the trance, he will break the trance and start singing.

And that can happen 15 minutes into a song.

Suddenly his voice drops on you like the voice of God.

And he's talking about politics.

He's singing about all the injustices of post-colonial Africa.

He's calling out dictators by name.