The debut album ‘Reclaim Australia’ by Indigenous Australia duo Briggs and Trials as A.B. Original is to be released on 25 November through Golden Era Records and Bad Apples Music, Australia’s first Indigenous Hip Hop label. No strangers to music fans in Australia and beyond, Trials has been releasing music for years with his other group The Funkoars, while Briggs himself has also built a reputation as one of Australia’s premiere solo lyricists, as well as more recently entering the acting world through his critically acclaimed reoccurring role on Cleverman and Black Comedy.
Five tracks from the forthcoming album including 2 Black 2 Strong, Dead In a Minute (featuring Caiti Baker), Firing Squad (feat. Hau), Take Me Home (feat. Gurrumul), January 26 (feat. Dan Sultan) as well as the non-album “Black Balls” have all been released and gives anticipation that Reclaim Australia is shaping up to be one of the album releases of the year in Australia. The most recently released single from A.B. Original in January 26 recently charted strongly in Australia, highlighting the broad appeal of their socio-political-cultural messages and how strongly it is resonating through large sections of the populace.
Featuring additional appearances from King T, Guilty Simpson as well as from Australian artists Thelma Plum and Archie Roach, the album has shaped up as a very polished debut. Following an already overwhelming response from supporting the sold out Hilltop Hoods national tour and a handful of solo shows, A. B. Original are set to play numerous festival spots over the summer season in Australia with the legendary DJ Total Eclipse of The X-Ecutioners.
The A. B. Original sound has been described as rough and tough around the edges, deliberately brash and aggressive, somewhat in the spirit of N.W.A. and Westside Connection, providing a much needed honest account of race relations in Australia today, as well as delving into Australia’s dark colonial past through a traditional sound away from the fashion of today. The ironic title of the forthcoming album, Reclaim Australia, strikes a strong accord locally in Australia as there is currently a small, misinformed yet vocal group protesting immigration to Australia also called Reclaim Australia (a small group fearful “their” country is being taken away from them which is satirical to say the least when understanding the British colonialized Australia in 1788). A.B. Original provide a very much refreshing traditional hip hop sound in Australia that has largely been missing from recent years within a more commercially geared hip hop market of today.
