Album Review: Fantastic Negrito - Please Don't Be Dead

Double check the tightness of that seatbelt, people, 'cause Xavier Dphrepaulezz's third album as Fantastic Negrito takes off with all the breathtaking force of a high-speed roller coaster, hitting hard with a barrage of American social commentary before the first hairpin bend.

Plastic Hambugers empties its magazine of heavy blues and rock early. Sure, there's other explosive truth kegs to come; such as the Bo Diddly lovin' Transgender Biscuits, wherein the long-suffering bluesman growls off pathetic reasons why his people have been fired.

No need to be completely alarmed or depressed, though: for all the energy loaded into the vocals, there's a robust musicality that it's impossible not to be enraptured by; the odd sample of Leadbelly here, twisted with a sample of his own fiery guitar and that lavishly soulful croon. When Bullshit Anthem lovingly bows to Bootsy Collins' funky cape tails, that's when the 'fantastic' in Fantastic Negrito comes fabulously to the fore.

Please Don't Be Dead may be belted out with the most furious of voices, but Dphrepaulezz's call to arms is urgently universal. Powerful stuff.