Abstract Index Playlist - February 25/09

It doesn't get much more world music than this. If I'd copped this disc a few weeks ago I might have written about it in my research feature.

The fine folks at Lyon's Jarring Effects label kindly sent me the new album by Barceloan beatsmith Filastine. They are one of the two labels (the other being DJ/Rupture's Soot) involved with the globalization of this fine work of digital microsurgery.

This is the kind of music that really excites me these days - a personal approach to electronics and inventive uses of global inputs. "Singularities", which graced the dub set this week, has a whirlwind of ingredients. Dramatic string loops a la Wu Tang give way to a bogle-type beat. Then the shredding starts with 32nd note polyrhythms creating huge flurries of sound. The never-fail descending string motif gives momentum to the sound even as the combinations of splattered beats always threaten the linearity of the song.

I always have great appreciation for someone who establishes their own sense of syncopation in digital programming. Filastine's certainly got that. Even with Arabic, Spanish, and English vocals and EuroAfroMaghrebCarib rhythm information, he understands where he's going in each song. His flourishes are consistently behind the beat, and often consist of percussion other than kicks and snares. These two stylistic touches give a great deal of character to this disc, elevating it above soulless clatter that so often comes with overeager computer musicians.

Podcast

two wings - elder utah smith (case quarter)
gimakiny akia - extra golden (thrill jockey)
rose odhiola - shirati jazz (world circuit)
sanankono moriba - super rail band de bamako (indigo)
it's a vanity - gabo brown & orchestre poly rhytmo (analog africa)
superstar - society of seven (bbe)
elephants - bell orchestre (arts and crafts)
contrareity - carsick (drip audio)
flower power - professor psygrooves (jarring effects)
turning - stone house (riti)
njuke no go die - on ka'a davis (livewired)
soul vibration - new black nation (attic)
saphir - nick ayoub (do right)
l'anchoiade - volfoniq, disrupt & bo marley (no label)
cyan - billy rockwell (balanced)
safe in the dub - vibronics (scoop)
singularities - filastine (jarring effects)
rumpus - version xcursion & masia one (vx)
straight to i roy's big mouth - king tubby and the aggrovators (pressure sounds)
my jamaican weed - andru branch and halfway tree (no label)