From a Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate: Bedouin Hornbook, Djbot Baghostus's Run, Atet A.D. (Vol. 1-3)
“In Nathaniel Mackey’s world, everything from a guitar strum to a needle scratch becomes an open-ended exegesis of musical meaning that is equal parts African American history, Bedouin mysticism, and Mackey’s own imagination. Though this world resembles the everyday world most of us live in, the normal constraints don’t hold Mackey or his characters down…. You aren’t likely to forget it.” (Travis Nichols - The Believer)“Mackey’s characters are musicians for whom there is no outside of music, for whom improvisation and performance are ways of being, forms of consciousness, and tools of Africa-and-beyond cultural survival.” (Josh Kun - The Boston Phoenix)