Fantastic Negrito
Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?

I arrive just as the guitar ejaculates an acidic solo that coils around me: ecstasy within ecstasy, I collapse, not so delicately, onto her chest. I don't know where this electric shock came from, but the music of this artist is a continuous surprise, even within the same songs that range from funk, soul, blues rock, R&B, not to mention rap, gospel, spiritual, and whatever. We lay spooning in silence. A somewhat misshapen meat sandwich, two not-so-perfect and sweaty halves while the beats slow down and we enjoy the end of "Your Sex Is Overrated." We remain peacefully listening to the next-to-last album by Fantastic Negrito "Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?" while smoking a cigarette. I have surely lost my mind for this eclectic artist. I listen to the notes, see them bouncing off the room's walls while we, disheveled and happy, leave all the mess outside the door. Someone could be ringing the bell, it might even be your God begging to come in: I won't lift my butt. Not now. We play the record again, and, believe it or not, something down south on my part stirs once more…

We went to his concert at the Vittoriale almost by chance; convinced by some stingy acquaintances we hadn't seen since the Mesozoic era. As if the tickets were worth €120, they were desperately trying to cover the bail a couple had classily given them at the last moment (something like "we're really sorry, but we just remembered we have to defrost the fridge!). I won't tell you from which planet Fantastic Negrito comes or where he was hiding until 2017: there's already a nice review of his first album here on Debasio that traces his story. And what a story! My intent is simply to pique your curiosity because it's rare to be stunned on the road to Damascus by a contemporary artist. I am usually quite reluctant to listen to anything that isn't from before the end of the plastic decade/early '90s, and the discovery for me was astonishing. Perhaps the live performance I attended contributed to this, which struck me with distorted, acidic, elongated, and powerful versions.

The album does not go unnoticed, and a quick glance at the elegant and sober cover makes that clear. It is a work that cannot bore because it is varied, mutable, and changing with a high-level production and impeccably played. "Chocolate Samurai" and "How Long" have the merit of being immediate due to their strong melodic vein that respectively calls to mind funk that winks at R&B and more conventional modern blues. My favorite song, as you might have guessed, is "Your Sex Is Overrated," which mixes organ guitar with electric for an orgasmic combination. But sitting here and typing a chronicle of all the songs would be foolish. The most critical might say that our Xavier copies from various Stevie Wonder, Prince, James Brown, Betty Davis, Funkadelic, and who knows how many others; a mix of genres embracing not only those mentioned in the review but also Southern, Soul, Rap, and the like.

But I don't find it to be mere copying, nor do I think it is easy to embrace all this cauldron and give birth to songs of this quality with a well-defined imprint and a common thread despite their being so different from one another. A glue that binds them are the lyrics that make this artist a herald of contemporary Black music. I have not yet heard the new "White Jesus, Black Problems" but from the sarcastic, almost caustic title, I would say that the strength of his songs perhaps comes from a long-repressed anger/resentment.