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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 |
| Reviews | |
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| The soi-disant mugician brings more global communication in this worldly-wise follow up to his self-released debut, Zombeats. Though the creaking signage and watery vocal which opens Asmar's sophomore album slots right into place at new label Mush, having much in common with hip-hop corrupters Doseone and Boom Bip, it is subsonic rumbles of dub bass rather than quick witted lyrics which make up the keystones to this particular body of work. As likely to feature a distant cry of a muezzin as it is the tolling of high noon in a dusty Western, Asmar is well versed in the dark arts of sonic collusion, forever twisting samples, clips of lyrics and atmospherics to suit his own ends and promoting harmony in elements which, in other hands, would be both distant and disparate. The result is one of the more easily accessed albums to have graced the Mush imprint to date and, respectively, comes heartily recommended. - All Music Guide |
