Exuma 1970 Album

Exuma

I don’t rightly know how to describe this album, or much of Exuma’s music, for that matter. What I do know is, his real name was Macfarlane Gregory Anthony Mackey – quite a mouthful – and after quite a bit of time spent plying his craft in New York City in the 60’s he formed a rather large band and released a series of cult albums which underwent major label treatment in the 1970’s. The genre term is junkanoo, but it really shouldn’t make much of a difference, because Exuma and friends’ express goal here is to take the bush medicine/religion that he grew up with and set it to a musical back drop. Often times, it is a rough and borderline grotesque backdrop – what with zombies and people rising from graves with fire in their eyes – but it’s a backdrop all the same, and one that can be just as captivating in its’ own off-beat manner. The most upbeat track is the opener, “Exuma, the Obeah Man”, which kicks off with creepy coyote howls and is propelled along with Exuma’s excited acoustic guitar strums and exclamations about being birthed by lightning bolts. But for me, the real trick of the album are droning seance/chant tracks like “Dambala”, “You Don’t Know What’s Going On”, and “The Vision” which feel inevitable.