aFRO-mySTIK
Future Tropic
OM
The name implies heaping conga-fulls of rhythms, and aFRO-mySTIK delivers. A world-wide palette of beats and instruments, organic and electronic, clinging to each other ultra-tightly as they swirl by, handing off the trance baton in a marathon of multiple drum kits booming and zooming. Cheeky-chic, clicky, tappy-tinkly, and sly all whiz by you with layers and layers of details. The pace and variety stay constant through all thirteen tracks, each one a flood of ideas rarely resting too long in any one place. Mainly the beats are cozy and familiar (worldbeat-wise), but some off center keyboard chord work adds an non-daunting mystique. Some more ethnic than others, and some more wandering and adventurous.
From a jazzy cool to a loungy R & B, all tracks share a strong dose of trancy dance to keep your toes poppin’. They’re mostly instrumental, with a few exceptions. Azeem raps and Liana Young sing with two selections each. Otherwise, vocally, it’s a lost sampled word or phrase ricocheting about, or the more refreshing tribal/ethnic voices lightly woven into the mesh. A supersize combo deal of world beat sounds with a potpourri groove aroma.
OM Records, 245 S. Van Ness, San Francisco, CA 94103; http://www.om-records.com
