feature: check the grooves of sabatta’s latest ep ‘know my name’. #soundcheck

Harkening back to that brief magical period in the early 70’s when funk-rock was a good thing and not the official soundtrack to frat parties everywhere, the latest EP from UK rockers Sabatta calls up Sly and the Family Stone. Singer/guitarist Yinka and drummer Mari carve up rich grooves and riffs over Know My Name‘s 4 tracks.

By Nathan Leigh, AFROPUNK Contributor

The Know My Name EP, in keeping with the name, is obsessed with identity. “You don’t need no permission / Just to be yourself” Yinka sings over a killer horn line in “No Permission.” The song is a dissection of image consciousness. “If you’re loving the skin you’re in then baby, you shouldn’t even care / That’s what I think about that.” But elsewhere, on the closer “I Don’t Exist”, a jaded Yinka declares “You can see me in a looking glass / But I don’t exist.” When Yinka repeats “who am I?” on EP highlight “Told Ya,” it starts rhetorical before becoming a genuine statement of doubt. It’s easy to say “just be yourself,” but all of us suffer a crisis of identity every now and then.