Release : Kain - The Blue Guerrilla (1970)
Artist : Kain
Album : The Blue Guerrilla (1970)
Genre : Avantgarde
Source : CDDA
Label : Collectables
URL :
Date : 00-00-1994
Encoder : LAME 3.97 / -V2 --vbr-new
Quality : 193kbps 44100 kHz Joint Stereo
Tracks : 10
Time : 40:05 min
Size : 55.50 MB
1 I Ain't Black 1:07
2 Harlem Preacher 5:40
3 Silly Shit 6:14
4 Ain't It Fine 3:37
5 Black Satin Amazon / Fire Engine Cry Baby 6:16
6 Clouds 1:16
7 Loose Here 5:11
8 Nubian II 1:34
9 Constipated Monkey 2:16
10 Look Out for the Blue Guerrilla 6:54
This solo album by Gylan Kain, one of the original Last Poets -- before the
group recorded for Douglas Records -- is a study in angry poetics, performance
art, and killer presentation. Recorded and issued in the early '70s, The Blue
Guerrilla is a freestyle set before such a thing was even a dream. Kain's one
pissed-off cat, raging not only against the usual necessary concerns, but also
against the stereotypes in his own community. Free jazz-funk grooves on guitars,
electric violins, a slew of drums, and ghostly keyboards accompany his gorgeous
and disturbing ranting that is far from pointless. From the opening ritual
scarification of "I Ain't Black," with it's free jazz approach and over-the-top
screaming, to the poignant indictment of "Harlem Preacher," to "Black Satin
Amazon" and "Constipated Monkey," Kain is a hipster without a country, a street
poet without an audience, an activist without sympathy. And rather than succumb
and stylize his thang to get his message across, he becomes angrier, slyer,
slicker, less forgiving, and more insightful. Music is placed here not as
accompaniment, but as a framework for Kain to place his poetry in a context of
the African-American oral tradition and the Living Theatre. And he gives no
quarter. This man makes the Last Poets he left behind sound like schoolboys
trying to sound pissed off. Kain would make Gil Scott-Heron run away for fear of
being exposed as the effete he became before he turned into an out-and-out drug
addict. There aren't any other records like this; this is the sound of the
apocalypse, one that Amiri Baraka predicted and celebrated. Come to The System
of Dante's Hell as narrated by Kain. Sit down, listen all the way though if you
can; wake up. There's a riot goin' on.
Enjoy!