Muzikfan,
Album Review
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I have a problem with remix albums. They all sound the same. That is to say the DJs have each other as a frame of reference so they are all trying to ape the success of Gaudi or Cheb i Sabbah. The remixers are not musicians but rather engineers who are adept at looping samples, layering in synth and juxtaposing anachronistic elements to create a new sound. I try to wade through those that come my way, but it's usually sub-disco mush with only a whiff of the original music perceptible under the layers. So when Footsteps in Africa showed up six months ago I gave it a spin and my first thought was, There's already a strong trance element in Saharan music, why mess with it? But then the album resurfaced and I tried it again. After several tries I began to like parts of it; now it's my default album to put on when I want music but don't want to pay attention to it, like when I am reading, cooking, sewing, or just messing about. There's a whole array of famous DJs on here so there is at least some variety to the music though two tracks have been remixed twice and another thrice. I am not going to go blind trying to tell you what's on here because the sleeve has the worst typography I have seen this year: it's 4 and a half point white Uncial type with floating shadow over coloured half-tones. It's too small to read any of it, so the designer also escapes notice. That's the negative part: on the plus side Jamshied Sharifi combines the wobbly sine-wave wash with Gyuto monks and a huge echo chamber that swallows everything whole. But now and then a wild fiddle brings a human touch to the robotic drum beats. What that track has to do with Africa I can't tell you, but the "Red Ladies Tent Jam" clearly has Tuareg ladies making jam with a trap drummer, harmonica player and guitarist learning Mick Abrams's "Cat's Squirrel" atop it. The SonicTurtle remix of more Tuareg ladies' jam is awful, sounds like a hookah bubbling, but that is quickly swept away by the "Tuareg Goosi Jam in Tent." How's that for a nutty title? Then there's a better mix of the "Aheahedon Tuareg Women's Jam" by Nickodemus. The end titles (Solar Lion remix) is oddly a reggae track (with sitar) to change the mood entirely. If you like the Tuareg stuff, especially the stony trancelike women chanting and handclaps, you might enjoy the augmented set here. Worth a listen anyway. 02/01/11
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