Musique Non Stop | eMusic Electronica

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John Wizards, John Wizards Posted: 03 Sep 2013 06:00 AM PDT African and Western, traditional and modern, mashed together in a way that defies separation When in the 1980s African artists began to make their way to world music circuit, the biggest acts — Fela Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Ali Farka Touré — were also the most unadulterated, their music with clear lineages back to their highlife, juju and griot roots. But in the 21st century, the African acts most likely to break through are instead a messy and bright jumble of genres. The Very Best, the acts on the Shangaan Electro comp and Cape Town’s John Wizards offer a panoply of sounds both African and Western, traditional and modern, mashed together in a way that defies separation. As the music project of John Withers — in conjunction with Rwandan vocalist Emmanuel Nzaramba — John Wizards dials back the cacophonous density, aggressive BPMs and neon-bright synths of their contemporaries. On their debut, they instead meld together the languid, leisurely sounds of everything from reggae to R&B slow jams. Chameleonic opener “Tet Lek Schrempf” feels dreamy but soon picks up the pace, with shimmering synths and pygmy song at its core. “Limpop” percolates in neon bubbles much like Shangaan Electro would, but cuts the latter’s 160 BPM rate with some chillwave. “I’m Still a Serious Guy” evokes the synthetic tropical sound of Level 42 and I-Level, but the vocal melody of Withers here most resembles Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig, who was once criticized for aping African music. John Wizards suggests that the heartiest musical sound might be a mutant strain.

Forest Swords, Engravings Posted: 03 Sep 2013 06:00 AM PDT Reggae with a different ear and different sort of hand on the controls Forest Swords, the project of English electronic producer Matthew Barnes, suggests a series of answers to a riddle that may have never been posed but proves worth pondering nonetheless: What would reggae sound like if, in terms of overall vibe and tone, it sounded nothing like reggae at all? Forest Swords is aligned with dub, in all its ethereal, abstracted, echo-effected glory, but on Engravings, the first Forest Swords album after an auspicious EP in 2010, the genre’s tenets are treated with a different ear and a different sort of hand on the controls. “Ljoss” opens with a mix of grainy, ambient electronic textures smeared over eerie electric guitar and drums that crack and ricochet, with a sense of mystery moving in from a distance. “Thor’s Stone” bristles with suggestions of spectral slide whistles and samples of choral vocals made to sound inhuman. All of it sounds like a contemporary reimagining of Goblin’s storied score for the classic 1970s horror movie Suspiria, or else — especially on highlights like “Onward,” “Anneka’s Battle” and “The Plumes” — a uniquely inspired variation on the ghostly, desiccated style of Holy Other, Haxan Cloak and many more.