Puma Ptah ADD

Review

Review: Puma Ptah - In One Accord EP

05/29/2015

If humanity only was in one accord with Puma Ptah!

Puma Ptah was formerly known as Ras Puma, and under that name, he joined the both musically and politically progressive Washington, D.C.-based music collective Thievery Corporation a few years ago. He was featured on their 2011 album Culture of Fear, and still tours with them globally. In 2012, he appeared on the self-titled album debut of The Archives, a reggae starbust of Thievery Corporation. In between some serious touring with Thievery Corporation, and studio sessions to record their next album, Puma Ptah, who dropped the Ras from his stage name last year to reflect on his widened spiritual scope. He added Ptah instead, derived from the ancient Egyptian Kemetic religion.

His first solo effort is thus consequentially named In One Accord. “In this EP I’m beginning my attempt to remind myself and others of a fundamental sense of humanity,” he explains. “What we all have in common. Ones who we have trusted with economic leadership have used strategies to tap into our carnal desires to convince us to have a nonchalant attitude about our own self destruction,” he continues, and sums up: “These songs are affirmations that serve as reminders and motivation to look forward to change.”

In One Accord is published by Honest Music, the young Washington, D.C. label run by reggae singer Christos DC and keyboarder Darryl “D-Trane” Burke. Both feature as producers and musicians of the EP. I Grade Records’ Tippy I mastered the five tracks and two versions. In One Accord is solid, deep, hand made roots reggae, rich in effects and flawlessly produced to highest standards.

The real selling point, though, is the master class song writing. One and Business of Confusion are soaked with ancient cosmic spirituality. Prudence and Home speak to us on a personal level. The most outstanding track is Upright, a song that reminds us of Thomas Sankara, Patrice Lumumba, Muammar Gaddafi, Marcus Garvey, and Malcolm X, and connects their fights to the ones we ought to fight today, against privatization of public goods, free trade agreements, and neocolonialization through institutions such as the IMF and World Bank. If humanity only was in one accord with Puma Ptah!