Keyboardist, composer and producer Joe Armon-Jones has released Ceasefire, the second project in his ongoing “Aquarii in Dub” series after March’s Wrong Side Of Town EP. Featuring Armon-Jones’ Ezra Collective bandmate James Mollison and legendary reggae DJ Ranking Joe, Ceasefire features total four tracks: its title track with vocals from DJ Ranking Joe, “Hornsfire,” which sees Mollison play a blistering tenor saxophone over the “Ceasefire” backbeat, “Rhodesfire,” on which Armon-Jones leads yet another remixed iteration of “Ceasefire” from his Fender Rhodes keyboard and “Dubfire,” a dub version of “Ceasefire” based on an alternate bass line.
Both the project’s cover art — which shows a powerful soundsystem standing strong against sinister clouds and a crumbling city — and the vocals for its aforementioned title track are a call for peace amidst the firestorm of ongoing global conflicts. “This sh*t never ends,” Armon-Jones said of the project’s inspiration. “We wrote this song back in 2020 and the fighting never stops, encouraged by people who make money off the blood of innocent people. We live in an unbelievably cruel world. Palestinians have been living in apartheid for years and are now subject to a genocide being imposed on them by Israel, supported financially by the USA & Britain. [DJ] Ranking Joe here is calling for a ceasefire, not just for the Israeli occupiers but for all those around the globe who would kill another human being, as such an act is despicable and never tolerated.”
Ceasefire can be streamed on Spotify and Apple Music now, and is available on vinyl (the only way to hear “Dubfire,” which is exclusive to the vinyl pressing) via Armon-Jones’ Bandcamp page.
