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Sample Track 1:
"Alice in Voodooland" from West Nile Funk
Sample Track 2:
"Wadjo" from West Nile Funk
Sample Track 3:
"Ebae [Tel Aviv / Ghana]" from West Nile Funk
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West Nile Funk
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CD Review

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Music Today, CD Review >>

We live in an age of musical amalgamation, exemplified by the hundreds of albums each year that routinely toss boundaries aside to create new sub-sub-genres and styles. This is nothing new, of course. Wherever cultures have clashed throughout history, musical and artistic melting pots have occurred. Take a style like Afro-Cuban, for example, which was created by musicians combining elements of their cultural past and their newer environs. Modern artists have more tools at their disposal, though the concept is basically the same. With help from the Internet and other computer applications, musicians from all corners of the earth are combining seemingly disparate sounds and influences into unified grooves. This is especially true in the electronic and dance genres, where pretty much anything goes…as long as it makes people move. African music has been mined extensively for this purpose in recent years, usually in the form of samples and break beats. A relatively new group called Ex-Centric Sound System does them one better, taking entire songs from various African countries and supporting them with live bass and drums, as well as assorted electronic sound enhancements. Yossi Fine, the Sound System's bassist and founder, crafted the band's 2000 debut, Electric Voodooland, a well received slice of African downtempo/dub that sets the table nicely for the energetic follow up, West Nile Funk.

Along with Fine, the son of a West Indian singer and an Israeli guitarist, Ex-Centric Sound System also includes Moroccan-Israeli drummer Michael Avgil and traditional Ghanaian musician/dancers Prince Nana Dadzie and Miss Adevo. Starting with the "original jungle beat" and woodwind melodies of "The African Bee," Fine and his mates take listeners on a forward thinking journey into what was and what can be. The energy is infectious, making it quite hard to sit still during excellent uptempo cuts like "The Original Ragga" (a Hutu wedding song), "Wadjo," and the album-closing "Ayoyo." Several tracks sound closer to what Americans would consider "funk," like the slower title track and the trippy "Alice In Voodooland," which features a Ghanian dancehall vocalist, a storyteller from Togo, and a hunter from Burundi, but most of the record is comprised of faster paced rhythms. As Fine puts it, "dancers in Africa need to dance faster to get into the trance," thus the hip hop element so prevalent on most modern albums is rarely heard here because it's just too slow. A former bassist for the likes of David Bowie and Lou Reed, Fine shows off his tremendous chops and feel on "Bring Your Calabash," a literal invitation to party, while Avgil's sympathetic drumming is impressive throughout. The disc closes with the appropriately frenetic and powerful "Ayoyo," a fitting way to end a strong outing.

While it may be a departure from what you know, the Ex-Centric Sound System's West Nile Funk is more than accessible, even if you don't speak Hutu. After all, a good beat translates well to any language. 08/26/04 >> go there
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