SOURCE & FLESH: A Pure Channel.
"This is the greatest mind control music I’ve ever heard”.
by BobbiRush.
October 10, 2024 was said and believed to be a day that influenced new beginnings, manifestation, and growth. In the middle of this phenomena Josh Stokes released his twelfth album ‘POWER’- a bonding of moments in time expressing themselves through a vessel.
While playing the album I said aloud, “You truly have to know Josh to understand what he did here”.
But maybe not. Maybe one just needs to really listen. This release is an audio compilation that pulls from various moments in time- laying out what could serve as a curriculum in the study of African American History and Pop Culture/ fusing in the old bones of the Black / Church Experience with true enlightenment on what folks would call “The Devil's Music”.
When I say “Devils Music”, I don't refer to evil or negativity - I speak to that which makes the body inevitably respond, what brings that deep inside yourself moan, the scream that turns into a belly laugh because it felt that good- by listening.
This musical collage reflects what was before and what is beyond. It perfectly encapsulates that which is unknown, true and soul wrenching. The title track, “ POWER” offers us 1:25 seconds to reclaim and be called up-into, awakening what in us is dead /entering a holy electrified fire. It’s moving through many voices with a singular purpose - to agree. “Somebody Said” comes in kickin ass and hinges off the door, carrying with it the audacity to self define - working hand in hand with sovereignty and all eyes in “Who’s Watchin?" discussing the Black Man as the center of everything in his society of many motives. I wonder if we truly know how much scrutiny the African / American man is under in this country & worlds over?
Stokes refuses the pressure by recalling love for self, the other and your lover in “With You” & “For Loving Me”- reminding us that there is no revolution without its presence. In “DYOT” he brings a “Shining Star” approach - taking our beloved Maurice White into the next world he intended / harmony influenced by the elements. While I was “doin my own thing”, I wondered if this work was a purposed veneration? From beginning to end there’s a fortification of voices entangled with forward and distorted sounds bringing an eerie richness to the discourse you’ll find in “Greatness”, “Nigga School” and other tracks.
POWER is not Funk, Jazz, Soul or Gospel. Like all religions of the world, it is under The One. It is revival. Through revival we get life, freedom, vision, attitude and an undying will to live.