Description
The revered Filipino/Wiradjuri musician is explaining how the structure of their brilliant new record – Oro, Plata, Mata – came to be. The album is filled with vintage funk feel, knife-slashes of strings, the glinting bell-like sounds of the Kulintang (”It’s like a Filipino version of a gamelan – it’s tuned percussion” says Mo’Ju) and some stunning lyrical messages; it’s as much a homage to Mo’Ju’s uncle, who created an iconic film in the ’80s which shares its title with the album, as an exploration of wealth’s glorification, spirituality, political change, existential anxiety, and a passionate dedication to forging a brighter future.
The record doesn’t follow the film’s storyline, but its triad structure informed the way Mo’Ju ended up assembling the music, in unfolding formations of three.
As for its message, Mo’Ju wants to make it abundantly clear that the record is not a moralising, preachy project: ”This album is not didactic,” they say. ”It’s not about, ’Hey! This is what’s wrong with the world, and this is how everybody should be!’ I’m talking about my lived experience. It’s a reflection upon my own internal conflict around feeling at once complicit in capitalism, and also a total captive of it.
