Chicago's Black Monument Ensemble originated as a vehicle for leader Damon Locks’ sound collage work and, while it's now a living, breathing band, the cut-and-paste aesthetic is still very much to the fore. This short album – only 31 minutes long – is essentially a patchwork of samples augmented by a live band and small choir. Snippets of obscure movie dialogue and TV news provide a nicely analogue, 20th century feel, while ‘The People vs The Rest of Us’ embellishes a modal R&B vamp with old-school sampled horn stabs. As a whole, the album visits a convincing diaspora of influences: ‘Now (Forever Momentary Space)’ mixes Grounation-style roots rhythms with Arkestral vocals and Angel Bat Dawid's sweetly swooning clarinet; ‘Keep Your Mind Free’ is a kind of space-aged high-life; and ‘Barbara Jones-Hogu and Elizabeth Catlett Discuss Liberation’ feels like a sample-delic update of Eddie Gale's ‘Black Rhythm Happening.’ Recorded in summer 2020 – a time that will surely go down in history as a period of great turbulence and uncertainty – these live tracks, captured in just a few takes, zing with optimistic energy.