Fantastic Negrito - Son Of A Broken Man 
(Storefront Records)
Release Date: Out Now
The prolific Fantastic Negrito is back with a tantilising new album called 'Son Of A Broken Man' and if you're not excited then you really haven't been paying attention. The album begins with 'First To Betray Me', the sound of a radio being tuned through funk, soul, disco, spoken word and a sense of injustice. The frequency fixes on 'Runaway From You', a thick, gooey slice of blues with fuzzy guitars, oozing organs and drums that just hit different. There's a more traditional sound and tempo on 'I Hope Somebody's Loving You' and you can almost hear the single tear rolling down Fantastic Negrito's cheek as he sings this one with his eyes tightly closed.
'Skirty' has a brilliant blues stomp and hand clap rhythm which makes you want to strut whether you're heading out on the town or just going to the store for milk while the brilliantly title 'Goddamn Biscuit' growls and snarls from the guitar to the vocals and all the way back again. On 'Living With Strangers' our hero hits his cop-show theme stride and you can just picture the mean streets he's had to walk down to earn these chops. We have a brief interlude with 'Zollifer Flies' that leads us into 'Devil In My Pocket', a bluesy romp that shows off those raspy vocals at their very, very best. Then again, the 70s funk influence on 'California Loner' stretches that voice further with a sense of nostalgia and heartbreak set to a guitar melody that forces the head-bob to come in to play immediately.
There are Somali roots to the music of Fantastic Negrito and you can hear them in the beat of 'My Only Friend Is You' but the devilish guitars are more akin to Prince or Matt Bellamy in their eccentric pomp. The swampy blues stomp of 'Crooked Road' is a joy to behold as the rattling guitars evoke images of late nights down in New Orleans. A final interlude, 'The Children Are Waiting', introduces the final pair of songs starting with an unexpected cover of the 1920s classic 'This Little Light Of Mine' with full gospel and organ accompaniment. We are left with the late night slow jam of title track 'Son Of A Broken Man', lamenting that rare relationship between a man and his father set to sweet organ and heartfelt guitars. Fantastic Negrito, or Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz to give him his full name, has lived a life full of ups and downs that most can only dream of but each of those experiences is played out here in the form of the blues and it is a privilege just to listen to it.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/fantasticnegrito