The seventh studio album from Black Motion, Rebirth of the Drum remains firmly rooted in their synthesis of electronic dance music and indigenous African sounds. The duo, now consisting of Smol and Problem Child Ten83, update this blueprint with odysseys into territories familiar and uncharted. The energised re-imagination of Madala Kunene’s “Abangoma”, for instance, shows reverence to South African music royalty and simultaneously envisages electro-spiritual sounds of the future. Rebirth of the Drum maintains this dialogue between the traditional, contemporary, and futuristic, traversing eras, genres, locales and languages. The multilingualism found across songs like “Shona Malanga”, “Teka” and “Like I Do” reveals a continental outlook, reinforced by the ancestral chants that enliven the album. A range of collaborators flesh these soundscapes out further, vocalising pursuits of love, happiness, healing and spiritual enlightenment over syncopated percussion, ethereal synths and earthy strums.