Laos
The Liberation of Zion
1) Laos Awaken
2) Mekong River
3) Freedom Is Ours
4) Land Of A Million Elephants
5) Rise, Brothers Rise
6) Vientiane Calling
7) Plain Of Jars
8) Pha That Luang
The Liberation of Zion Sings Laos: Songs of Freedom and National Pride The Liberation of Zion
The Liberation of Zion take the roots riddim upriver. Over a bed of one-drop drums, skanky guitar and the hypnotic drone of the khaen, Laos’s ancient bamboo mouth organ, the band trades the Lion of Judah for a million elephants and sets out to prove that a landlocked nation can still make waves. Across eight songs, the album travels from the founding of the Lan Xang kingdom to the golden spire of Pha That Luang, by way of the mighty Mekong, the defiant Chao Anouvong, and the stone mysteries of the Plain of Jars. Along the way, the Lao Issara become I-and-I-ssara, a Vientiane monument built from runway cement becomes a lesson in where Babylon’s gifts end up, and an elephant never forgets, which makes it the most natural Rastaman in Southeast Asia.
Psychedelic, rooted and fiercely proud, this is reggae as history lesson, wordplay as liberation, and a full chalice raised to a country that refused to stay small. Tune your dial to Zion. Vientiane is calling.
