Labeling any music as spiritual can play as a (fiery) double-edged sword for any artist involved, and if that is your debut full-length album, like is the case with Brooklyn’s multi-media artist AnAkA, and her album Crisis of the Concrete, those edges just might get a bit sharper, and those edges might spew just a bit more fire either way.
Of course, that spiritual element that the artist might be trying to evoke could have more or less openly religious content (less in AnAkA case here), and it can involve a number of musical elements and/or genres, and AnAkA certainly goes that multi-genre route here. Very often, the best music with that spiritual element was done with quite a few jazz elements, and AnAkA certainly doesn’t shy away from bringing them in, possibly inspired in part by that ceremonial touch Alice Coltrane brought along.
At the same time, though, she was able to extract the essence of hip-hop (“Watch Out, Watch Out”), something that some might consider surprising, but AnAka doesn’t shy away from being both daring and innovative in her concept, she labels as Angel Music and her ability to bring together and unify seemingly disparate elements shines throughout this album. Loose and fluid on one hand and quite firm and concrete on the other.
