Spectral Forces, 90EEZE, Jujubi
The Rotunda
4014 Walnut St.
Philadelphia
Feb. 12, 2026
I’ve played and witnessed some great shows at The Rotunda, which is a long-running West Philly institution that will host any kind of event you can think of. I’ve seen and played punk shows there, I’ve seen rappers there, I’ve even attended craft markets and food fairs in this over 100 year old building. But, when I search my memory, I can’t quite place the last time I had been up in there. It’s definitely been a while. I thiiiiiiink it might have been to see Tierra Whack perform, which ruled as much as you can probably imagine it did. At one point she was giving out hot wings to the crowd. It was hilarious.
Anyways, this would end up being a very different experience than that, unknown to me as I headed westward for the gig, unsure of what I was going to see or hear. I often like to see artists that I’ve never heard of play live with as little context as possible. I feel like it makes the experience fresher, and I get more enrichment from comparing their recordings to my experience of the artist afterward, not the other way around. Turns out I was in for a seated locals event featuring avant jazz punk and heavily atmospheric ambient music, which is a vibe I haven’t had the good fortune to experience in quite a while. The sets from Jujubi, 90EEZE, and Spectral Forces were all continuous performances, which here means no breaks in between songs. In fact, it’s perhaps more accurate to think of each performance as one long song. Each video I have is going to be an excerpt of a longer act.
I came in maybe two-thirds of the way during Jujubi’s set. After getting a seat situated in the back, I perused the stage. I was seeing harp, synth, a laptop, a MIDI controller maybe? Not everything was entirely visible, which added to the mystery of this already ethereal music. Whatever these two have going on is producing some incredibly cinematic textures. Imagine being on the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa (Jupiter’s 95+ moons are all solid, if you didn’t know), you’ve just drilled through its thick icy crust, and you are for the first time seeing the now exposed ocean that has laid dormant underneath for millennia. That’s kinda what Jujubi sounds like.
Europa Clipper- Exploring Jupiter’s Ocean Moon
Now, 90EEZE had a whole lot going on. They basically felt like a mixture of Flying Luttenbachers, John Zorn, Ascension-era John Coltrane influences, and maybe a little bit of Black MIDI. Consisting of guitar, drums/percussion, saxophone/flute, bass, and MIDI flute/programming, it was like nothing was off the table with this band. The MIDI flute was truly fascinating; I asked later what instrument the player (I unfortunately didn’t catch their name) was using and they informed me it was called a Warbl, while additionally playing synths on an iPad. Pretty cool stuff, it sounded really ghostly. Watching them, it was clear that every part of every instrument was playable and every noise was valid note. This band seems truly free.
John Zorn, David Sanborn, Marcus Miller-Snagglepuss-1988 Live @Night Music
90EEZE established an atmospheric foundation similar to Jujubi’s, but quickly hit repeated dynamic shifts into loud, almost violent rhythms from their mix of electric and acoustic instruments. Huge swells of sound were punctuated by open and arrhythmic percussion. The drummer sat at a kit with an assortment of shakers and bells, at times sparsely texture-building before setting up grooves with sticks or using maracas as sticks. The guitar playing was largely kind of sparse, primarily consisting of high notes, quickly picked chords, and fast note runs. The bass was distorted and heavily reverbed, on average playing single notes very legato. Sometimes, multiple members of the group were playing different rhythms simultaneously. Sometimes, they were improvising and playing off of each other. The saxophonist would take breaks to sing wordlessly, boasting an impressive vocal range and wide range of techniques, from barks to high pitched wails. Before I knew it, this mf was fucking throat singing. Where the fuck did these people come from?
Lastly was show promoter Alex Smith’s newest project, Spectral Forces. Alex is someone I’ve known for quite a while here in Philly, and has always been a purveyor of visionary concepts and art. A true Afro-futurist, I expected nothing less from him and Spectral Forces than what I got, which was synthy free jazz punk. Spectral Forces is a trio of synth and programming, drum set, and upright bass, set to Smith’s singing, poetry, and samples of speeches discussing different decolonial concepts. Smith is, as I am, a peer and champion of the Black futurist punk style that Philadelphia has quietly fostered for years. As artists who are friends with the great Moor Mother and have been deeply influenced by her work, it came as no surprise when I noticed that Spectral Forces has many sonic similarities with a group like Irreversible Entanglements. But where Irreversible Entanglements have a much more earthy, rustic sound, Spectral Forces is much more digital and rock n’ roll.
Irreversible Entanglements: Tiny Desk Concert
I look at futurism as the combination of past influences and present imagination. When applied to Black and Pan-African cultural traditions, you get Afro-futurism. It’s everything Black that has ever been created converging with all that can be dreamt of, becoming the past and future in real time. The Sankofic (look it up) practice of playing a synth on top of a bebop drum beat to create a new kind of rock music is a definitive example and celebration of using our past to conceptualize and define a new world. Even though it’s ~just through art~ these practices and this worldview don’t have to end there. We can and must apply this to our lives outside of music and art. As the oppressive structures of the old world fall around our heads, we are very much in a critical time to learn to do so with respect to whichever cultures we identify and ethnicity we belong to.
