Queen & Judgement. Not Queen of Judgment, but more of a "Yes, and..." type of situation concerning mythic forces, as in more is more in the cornucopia of the cosmos. They arrive together as each other's steed and hussar- Oya, the Yorùbá Orisha manifestation of winds and cyclones, appearing under the mantel of Queen, and the Sky Father, Obatala, creator of the human form, riding in under the banner of Judgment. Ostentatious, sure, but we all meet our makers eventually, and I could think of more ominous conditions to do so than through an album from Toronto's Battle of Santiago. I found their 2017 LP La Migra* pretty compelling, and their 2020 release is every bit of a revelation. Battle of Santiago plays a super fly and stellar seeking mix of Latin American dance music with heavy Afro-beat influences and an anxious strain of post-rock interlaced throughout. On Queen & Judgement, the band tilts into the Afro-folk parts of their sound in an even more unapologetic way, allowing them to spin up and flourish in a maelstrom of jubilance, exploding in a catharsis of hurricane-like proportions. According to the band, their music is written to "invite everyone to dance, have fun and forget about the problems of life..." and I think this is a worthy sentiment even when things seem at their bleakest. There is only so much you can do about the problems of the world, and once you've done your part, all you can do is take solace in each other's company and permit fate to weave its course with the Queen at its back and Judgment as its guide.
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