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MH-216 Andre Afram Asmar - Racetothebottom  Andre Afram Asmar has crafted a masterwork of organic dub-influenced downtempo with over twenty guest artists and vocalists including Scientist, Elias, and Israel, from countries in the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean. Over a year in the making, racetothebottom is an ambitious project that uses live instruments as the base for each track, and then accentuates them with samples, electronics, and computer manipulation. Rooted in non-violence, the search for common ground, and support for the world's oppressed, racetothebottom is meant to be a soundtrack to life. Asmar combines seemingly disparate styles in a single track - Middle Eastern vocals over Jamaican dub, Brazilian rhythms over Western electronics - to accentuate the harmony created, and to focus on beauty found in cultures so often viewed in a negative light. |
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| Reviews Summary |
| Fans of eclectic, globe-spanning sonics will find much to enjoy in the thirteen soothing cuts. - Urb / At the forefront of both hybrid and political music - YRB / Sonically radical - XLR8R / It's not globe-hopping; it's a meltdown. - New York Times / An act worthy of a Nobel Prize. - Signal to Noise |
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| Left-field hip-hop label Mush delves into more abstract territory with Andre Afram Asmar's sophomore album, a world-music collage suited to college-dorm hookah-sucking marathons. "camelclutch" weaves a hazy stomp through Middle Eastern streets, "computermammals" plays a video game on Valium and "scientism" is uncut dub. Whether you're practicing bikram yoga to the title track's solemn warbles (recorded at Bethlehem refugee camp) or nodding to the insistent percussion and gurgling lyricism of "stinktank", fans of eclectic, globe-spanning sonics will find much to enjoy in the thirteen soothing cuts. - Urb |
