The all-original compositions of The Source flesh out ideas first mooted on Allen's EP A Tribute to Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. As before, Tony Allen's sparse cymbal play, loose-skinned fills and brittle snare blend African roots with American swing. The brass is arranged with zest and imagination and in the absence of harmonic movement, solos are all the more effective for focusing on the pulse. The project expands its horizons by adding guitar and occasional electronica, while extra brass can reference a wider range of jazz influences. Snippets of Blakey-like horns riff with purpose, spiky trumpet calls summon the ghost of Lester Bowie and surges of interlocking lines conjure a Mingus aesthetic. The album opens with tuba ruminating over a panoramic brass drone that recalls Gil Evans in his prime – ‘Moody Boy’ eventually settles into call-and-response brass over a snappy bass riff and features raw tailgate trombone. Elsewhere, ‘Bad Roads’ is an atmospheric groove sculpture, heavy on harmonised brass while ‘Tony's Blues’ dances puckishly over a sinewy bass line that pulsates with West African blues. And Damon Albarn fits neatly into the jaunty grooves of ‘Cool Cats’. But the killer is Allen himself, stretching out with discipline and finesse and creating a pulsating undercurrent of futuristic rhythm by placing accents in unexpected places.