The Architecture Of Oppression Part 1 [Red Splatter Vinyl] (LP)

DESCRIPTION

The Brkn Record is a powerful new project led and produced by Jake Ferguson, co-founder and bassist of the UK’s foundational deep jazz collective, The Heliocentrics. With long-time collaborator and legendary drummer Malcolm Catto, Ferguson has worked with global icons including Archie Shepp, Mulatu Astatke, Melvin Van Peebles, and Orlando Julius — and now steps forward as a bandleader and orchestrator in his own right.

The Architecture of Oppression Part 1 is Ferguson’s debut album under The Brkn Record moniker — a soulful, cinematic, and politically charged chronicle of the Black British experience. It confronts systemic racism, state violence, and social injustice, both in London and globally, through a rich tapestry of spoken word, testimony, and song.

Musically, it weaves together influences ranging from Arthur Verocai and Ennio Morricone, to classic library scores, Madlib’s beat science, and psychedelic soul — with textured, emotionally driven performances grounded by Ferguson and Catto’s decade-spanning chemistry.

But this is more than an album. It’s also an activist document, shaped by Ferguson’s frontline work for racial justice and equity. The voices featured throughout span activism, education, poetry, politics, and music. Contributors include:

• Jermain Jackman – singer and political activist

• Zara McFarlane – jazz vocalist

• Ugochi Nwaogwugwu – Chicago-based poet and singer

• Lee Jasper – racial justice campaigner and former advisor to the Mayor of London

• Dylema – acclaimed performance poet

• Janette Collins MBE and Leroy Logan MBE – Hackney community leaders, with Logan portrayed in Steve McQueen’s Small Axe episode Red, White and Blue

The Architecture of Oppression Part 1 stands in the great tradition of militant, socially rooted works such as Max Roach’s We Insist – Freedom Now Suite, The Impressions’ This Is My Country, Irreversible Entanglements’ Who Sent You?, and Linton Kwesi Johnson’s Bass Culture.

A broken record repeats itself endlessly, stuck in a damaged groove. But The Brkn Record is a work of healing, protection, and truth-telling — one that finally lets the story play all the way through, no skips.

TRACKLIST

1. Assimilation (feat. Dylema) – 04:39

2. His Mother’s Eyes (feat. Jermain Jackman) – 03:20

3. Brother Andrew – The Investigator (feat. Brother Andrew Muhammad) – 01:00

4. Break The Chains – 02:42

5. A Police Service, Not A Police Force (feat. Lee Jasper) – 01:56

6. Hackney Ain’t Innocent (feat. Yolanda Lear) – 04:13

7. On the Daily (feat. Ugochi Nwaogwugwu) – 03:30

8. Say Black (feat. Dylema) – 04:08

9. The Babylon Encounter (feat. Janette Collins and Leroy Logan) – 01:59

10. Witness the Whiteness (feat. Adam Elliott-Cooper) – 04:27

11. Lifeline (feat. Zara McFarlane) – 04:21

12. Reparations (feat. Great Okuson and Sarah Solomon) – 04:21