In a crowded field of revolutionary jazz groups, Irreversible Entanglements aim to keep the music as radical as their vision. “Open the Gates,” the title track of their forthcoming album, is no different. Rolling percussion (provided by drummer Tcheser Holmes) and a steady bass riff (courtesy of Luke Stewart) build a sturdy pulpit for Moor Mother’s liberatory declarations. She goes from determined to abstract in the space of a few lines: “Open the gates, we arrive, energy time/Universal sound law, not guilty, not doing time.” The demand for freedom, echoed by the unrelenting pounding of the rhythm section, is familiar yet bold. Though we’ve heard similar sentiments from the band before—as on the propulsive “No Mas,” where Moor Mother called for an end to the forces of division over Holmes’ clattering percussion and Aquiles Navarro’s stabs of trumpet—this is no mere retread.

When the horns enter in “Open the Gates,” the band gets even wilder. Almost a minute into the song, Navarro’s trumpet and Keir Neuringer’s saxophone arrive in tandem; their long-held notes overlap each other, escaping into the air like distant, mournful cries. “Open the gates,” Moor Mother repeats as the horns go their separate ways, one playing the main theme as the other improvises a loose scream. Writhing in the distance, they reflect the conflict between accepting one’s fate and attempting to change it; you can move forward in the old way, but that won’t stop new obstacles from appearing in your path. Closing out the song with atonal melodies, the horns symbolize Moor Mother’s insistence that the mental and political walls separating us from actual change be demolished. Their torrential blasts become slightly overwhelming, and before you realize that the sky has darkened, you’re already drenched with rain.