It’s exciting to hear the UK jazz scene level up: many of its leading lights are starting to look to their second albums, as is star tuba player and Sons of Kemet member Theon Cross. His 2019 solo debut, Fyah, was a fresh ripping up of the rulebook, boisterous and full of life, dubby and noisy. Follow-up Intra-I is a more introspective feat, digging deep into ancestral rhythms and testing the boundaries of breath. The faultlines between genre rupture beyond definition, with elements of grime, rap, spoken word, jazz, even nu-metal. For the first time, Cross is working with guest vocalists, and he’s also leaning into his instrument’s earthy resonance.
That low rumble sounds positively apocalyptic on tracks such as Roots, breaking into a heaviness to rival Brazilian heavy metal band Sepultura, with Zimbabwean MC Shumba Maasai’s taunting flow adding to the otherworldly feel. On The Spiral, gorgeously crisp syncopated beats thwack against serene sax and vocals from Steam Down’s Ahnansé and Afronaut Zu. The album gracefully oscillates between inner-city toughness and a search for something more spiritual, none more so than on closer Universal Alignment, a ceremonial tuba duet between Cross and Oren Marshall, Cross’s groove buzzing like a didgeridoo, as if communing with a higher power.
