The Brkn Record is a new project led and produced by Jake Ferguson, the co-founder and bass player for the UK’s foundational deep jazz outfit the Heliocentrics. With fellow Heliocentrics co-founder and legendary drummer Malcolm Catto, Ferguson has been a regular collaborator with globally recognised artists including Archie Shepp, Mulatu Astatke, Melvin Van Peebles, Orlando Julius and many others.

The Architecture of Oppression Part 1 represents Ferguson’s debut as a bandleader and orchestrator, and manifests as a committed and soulful response to ongoing and systemic anti-black racism, social oppression and state violence both at home in London and across the globe. Combining poetry, testimony and song with rich and cinematic backdrops, Ferguson has produced a sui generis sound that conjures flavours of Arthur Verocai, Ennio Morricone, classic library productions, Madlib-style deep-jazz beat science, and psychedelic soul. With bandmate Malcolm Catto on drums, Ferguson draws on their long years of collaborative experience in the Heliocentrics to build an album of striking texture and depth. 

But the album does not only reflect Ferguson’s full-spectrum musical prowess, experience and vision. It is equally a manifestation of his longstanding and high-profile work as a frontline activist for racial justice and social equity in London and beyond.

Alongside Malcom Catto, contributors to the album are drawn from the intersecting worlds of community activism, cultural education, politics and music, and include singer and political activist Jermain Jackman, Zara MacFarlane; Chicagoan activist, poet and singer Ugochi Nwaogwugwu; Lee Jasper, longstanding worker for racial justice and former advisor on equalities to the Mayor of London; acclaimed performance poet Dylema; Hackney community leader Janette Collins MBE and Leroy Logan MBE, founder and former chair of the Black Police Association, and the subject of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe episode ‘Red, White and Blue’.

The Architecture of Oppression Part 1 is a singular and urgent chronicle of the black British experience, an upful expression of Pan-African creative unity and community solidarity, and a militant and unbending missive from the frontline in the great tradition of The Impressions’ This Is My Country, Irreversible Entanglements Who Sent You?, Max Roach’s We Insist - Freedom Now Suite, or Linton Kwesi Johnson’s Bass Culture.

A broken record repeats itself, and never plays through – the music is interrupted or trapped in a cycle by damage to the grooves. But The Brkn Record is a work of healing and protection, and a chance to let the full story be heard – all the way to the end, no skips.

The Brkn Record - ‘The Architecture Of Oppression Part 1’

‘Lifeline’ is the stunning second single taken from The Brkn Record’s forthcoming debut album, ‘The Architecture of Oppression Part 1’. A ground-breaking concept album from Jake Ferguson of The Heliocentrics. It is a critical journey through the eyes of Black Britons, blending powerful and sobering narratives with psychedelic and soulful symphonies.

Fronted by MOBO award-winning Brownswood Recordings artist Zara McFarlane, ‘Lifeline’ is a paean to strength, solidarity and hope atop a blazing psychedelic storm with sonic echoes of the Velvet Underground’s ‘Venus In Furs’.” The song was born during a period when Jake had been listening to Josh White and Johnny Shines and imagined himself sitting alone on a porch somewhere pondering his future. He describes what happened next, “inspired by this scene, I picked up my Thai guitar, which is a four string instrument with a very bluesy, cranky sound, and then the main hook line came to me. I kept playing it over and over again and thought about recording it on its own without other instruments. After a while I started to lay down the first main line, then layered it up a few times to make it sound more lush. Sitting next to the Thai guitar was my electric tanpura which seemed to be calling me to use it which I promptly did to get that drone sound. Next thing I know and I am immersing myself, as usual, in the work of Richard Evans, one of my favourite arrangers of all time and, the man behind Cadet's Soulful Strings which is where I got the inspiration to have strings follow the Thai guitar hook.”

The drums were added to the track by Jake’s long-time collaborator from The Heliocentrics, Malcolm Catto. This loose breakbeat drumming, haunting strings and psychedelic drone culminated in something akin to a tripped-out version of Rotary Connection’s ‘Memory Band’. Jake knew he would need a singer who could cut through, and Zara McFarlane was his first choice. "The clarity and precision of Zara's vocals offered a real juxtaposition to the 'roughness' of the bluesy drone. Also, Zara dug deep to give her own perspective on racism that I hadn't heard before.”

Zara’s serene voice has a magnetic pull that draws everything together on the track. The lyrical content is equally powerful, which she summarises as "an observation of how decisions, made by ourselves and others, affect our circumstances and consequences and thus the pulse of our lives from that moment on.”

The Brkn Record - Lifeline (feat. Zara McFarlane)

‘His Mother’s Eyes’ is a future anthem and the mesmerising third single taken from The Brkn Record’s forthcoming debut album, ‘The Architecture of Oppression Part 1’. A ground-breaking concept album from Jake Ferguson of The Heliocentrics. It is a critical journey through the eyes of Black Britons, blending powerful and sobering narratives with psychedelic and soulful symphonies.

Exquisitely sung by The Voice winner and political activist Jermain Jackman, ‘His Mother’s Eyes’ communicates the pain of loss, the trauma of systemic oppression, and the hope for an end to struggle. 

Jermain described the writing process “I thought about Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ and the opening line "Mother, Mother, there’s too many of you crying”. I asked myself, what was the context in which Marvin wrote that, and how does that relate to today? I felt that song meant so much now, it is still so important and factually correct. I decided to flip it on its head and use that as an inspiration. The first line of ‘His Mother’s Eyes’ is “how do you stop the tears from falling from his Mother’s eyes” - we are talking about George Floyd’s family, but also the families of those who have been killed because of racism, not just police brutality, but negligence, institutional racism, where Black women are five times more likely to lose their child or die themselves during childbirth. It was direct inspiration from Marvin, where at the point he wrote the song he was trying to understand what was going on so we can come together. ‘His Mother’s Eyes’ is a journey from that song to this one that says now we know what is going on how do we stop it? At what point do we stop and listen, and how do we now build to a better future? It felt like a part two where I was writing to ‘What’s Going On’.” 

Jackman’s crystalline voice is matched to an emotionally rich backing reminiscent of Charles Stepney’s timeless Cadet productions. It allows Jermain’s vocal to soar, culminating in an emotionally powerful song that will surely be heralded as an anthem of its time.

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The Brkn Record - His Mother’s Eyes (feat Jermain Jackman)

’Assimilation’ is the fourth, and final, single taken from The Brkn Record’s forthcoming debut album, ‘The Architecture of Oppression Part 1’. A groundbreaking concept album from Jake Ferguson of The Heliocentrics. It is a critical journey through the eyes of Black Britons, blending powerful and sobering narratives with psychedelic and soulful symphonies.

It is a track that has an overwhelming potency and power. A visceral tour de force that stops you in your tracks. The music has a Wagnerian manner to it, culminating in a dramatic and emotional intensity, masterfully matched by the evocative lyrics and their delivery. Over a pulsing, ominous beat, spoken word artist, singer and performance poet Dylema breaks down the psychological and social violations entrenched by the pressure placed on Black and Brown people to ‘assimilate’ to so-called English culture. 

Born and raised in Nigeria, Dylema moved to England in 2000 and it is this lived experience that is expressed in the song’s lyrics, "When I came to this country, I had such a strong accent that it was really difficult to blend in. Before I opened my mouth, you had the Black thing, and when I opened my mouth you had the African thing. People were taken aback by that, and so I found myself assimilating and remembering my experience of that assimilation. I felt in order to survive in England I would have to learn how to speak like an English person. Even though I have this accent right now, it is completely fake. It never left me to have an African accent, so amongst my friends and people close to me, I slip back without even noticing. The level of skill I had to have to assimilate into England required so much of me. Even if you’re not born and raised in Africa, there are so many things that Black British people have to do to assimilate without even noticing it. I still feel like I haven’t completely assimilated and I’m ok with that now. That is what inspired me to write Assimilation. I felt someone needed to put a voice to what we actually do to ourselves to be respected or accepted in Britain.”

The Brkn Record - Assimilation (feat. Dylema)

The Brkn Record - Reparations (feat. Great Okuson And Sarah Solomon)

The Brkn Record - Witness The Whiteness (feat. Adam Elliot Cooper)

The Brkn Record -  The Babylon Encounter (feat. Janette Collins And Leroy Logan)

The Brkn Record - Say Black (feat. Dylema)

The Brkn Record - Hackney Ain’t Innocent (feat. Yolanda Lear)

The Brkn Record - A Police Service, Not A Police Force (feat. Lee Jasper)

The Brkn Record - Break The Chains

The Brkn Record - Brother Andrew – The Investigator (feat. Brother Andrew Muhammad)

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The Brkn Record - ‘The Architecture Of Oppression Part 1’

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