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Sep 24, 2021The 13-track record is anti-corporate music at its finest—this was not created for mere enjoyment, but as an outlet for the global psychic mood. Each track feels like 2020. ... The entire album is captivating, but the middle section is exceptional. ... In Ayewa's hands the heady concept [Afrofuturism] gets new life.
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Sep 14, 2021With Black Encyclopedia of the Air, Moor Mother uses her genre-agnostic style to tackle to world's most popular genre and make it undoubtedly her own.
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Sep 20, 2021This is a great and important record. Just listen.
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Oct 8, 2021Moor Mother is up to the task, and Black Encyclopedia of the Air – while filled to the rafters with soulful grooves – is a testament to determination in the face of oppression.
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Sep 16, 2021It takes her music in a somewhat more accessible direction while retaining the creativity and fervor of the rest of her work. Considerably less noisy than previous Moor Mother releases like her 2016 breakthrough Fetish Bones, the album flows through slippery jazz rhythms, mellow R&B vibes, and meditative ambient textures, with Ayewa's lyrics remaining forceful even as she's delivering them in a softer register.
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MojoSep 14, 2021It's a wilful shuffle through the space-time continuum, where powerful pearls of wisdom about memory, the future and black justice pierce the sonic murk. [Oct 2021, p.90]
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The WireSep 14, 2021Black Encyclopedia Of The Air is a new reckoning of all things, an upending of the status quo presenting us with a world of new possibilities. [Sep 2021, p.56]
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UncutSep 14, 2021Black Encyclopedia... is less abrasive but no less urgently meaningful [than 2016's Fetish Bones], a fusion of experimental hip-hop, soul, poetry and jazz-etched beatscapes that ebbs and flows around the concept of an Afrofuturist universe. [Oct 2021, p.29]
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Sep 21, 2021Black Encyclopedia of the Air is another withering salvo in Moor Mother’s lifelong war of attrition, expertly disguised behind the shadow of a white flag.
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Oct 6, 2021The album’s production also settles into more coherent beats, a more richly-textured take on the sparse, sample-based sounds favored by underground artists like Navy Blue, MIKE, and featured artist Pink Siifu, who flows hectically over the creeping funk of “Obsidian.” ... Though one of her most conventional projects to date, Black Encyclopedia of the Air adheres to the radical tenets which defined Ayewa’s prior genre-defying work.
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Sep 14, 2021It’s in the curation of the record where Ayewa excels, presenting a platform for black and queer collaborators throughout.
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