review by Ful Shup
Ms. Mohammed: ‘Alibi’ (LP)
DL from Bandcamp
September 2017

Light a candle. Burn some sage. Set your intentions. Brew some lavender tea. For Ms. Mohammed’s debut album Alibi will set you to discover the powerful energy emanating from a full moon and a full heart.

Alibi opens with a groovy drumbeat and continues thereon to present a hypnotic experience. Tribal drums paired with smooth, intimate vocals, Ms. Mohammed leaves us as her “alibis” to a ritual.

Like the moon herself, we are sometimes whole, but often left feeling broken, dismembered, incomplete. We have a dark side. Alibi attests to that state of being as you can hear both strength and vulnerability both in her voice and in the cyclical movement of the music. As where one lets oneself be most vulnerable, one shows the greatest strength. And that is the ritual: the struggle to grow whole again, as the moon does in phases. But not without breaking apart, not without shattering. That is the mantra of the moon goddess. Alibi is a fiery offering to her. You will hear the music growing tense with the rise of feminine energy as you listen to ‘Pandora’. That feminine energy permeates the rest of the album. It peaks in ‘Written In Time’ where you hear most vulnerability, courage, festivity, and sadness all at once.

The beat moves you through the album, like an actual heartbeat, a lifeline. The beat reminds you that everything is connected. The beat is the connection: it is palpably felt in the percussions from the onset. “I am of the Earth and the Earth is of me,” the echo whispers as you move your body to the flow. Dancing too is a part of the ritual.

With ‘Never Again’, you will hear that the sound notably transitions into alt rock, yet it is the most natural of all transitions. Here we have a bridge between the old and the new: think Savages meets Texas. All in all, Alibi presents a powerful, eclectic fusion of traditional Caribbean beats with contemporary alt rock. The result? It is magic. Your inner goddess will scream.

Find Ms. Mohammed on Bandcamp, her website, Twitter and Facebook