Exotic Electric

If I’m ever feeling surfeited within my usual surroundings, through tracks like this, I mentally shift to a slightly more up beat eastern side of the hemisphere. Sound being one the most symbolic contributions to a tropical vacay allows for a pretty distinct memory of a time where human traffic was taken for granted.  Though perhaps lost it’s purpose for social interaction, a sacred quality of music is it’s ability to bring temporarily distanced cultures in touch with one and other. So if your missing that hot communal buzz as much as me, then check out some of these tracks that I hope will mentally relocate your thoughts to a more exotic serenity.

Gang Gang Dance – First Communion

Members: Lizzi Bougatsos (vocals), Brian DeGraw, Josh Diamond, Taka Imamura

 Described as a free-flowing ensemble, this fantastic four are known for pioneering a signature sound involving dance-pop, electronic and experimental characteristics. It comes with little shock that this band has featured in Netflix’s ‘The Sinner’ season three in which a thrilling game of risk and self discovery is unravelled. In true Manhattan style, the band has fused elements of psych-rock and hip-hop into the single with a limitless approach. A barbaric unforeseen melody, is often a pivotal feature in this style of music. There is an exotic degree of unpredictability when it comes to a change in key throughout the piece, led by a fast paced riff with arcade sounding dynamics. One in which sporadically shifts to suit the diverse characteristics and wild appetite of New York. Certain musicologists have theorised an evolutionary relation amongst the production of music and the cultural environment and space it is intended to be performed in. The tribal elements carry a purpose similar to that of the genre’s origin. African style music is often very rhythmically and texturally complex, designed to signify the presence and identity of the tribe. Gang Gang mirrors this alerting and native style with many jumps of spontaneity to subdue the traffic of constant sound throughout the bands hometown.

Blue lab beats 

Members:  NK-OK, Mr DM

Top Picks:  Pineapple, Pina Colada

Although this may be labelled Jazz, a couple of the duo’s songs air a tropic humidity of sound. After jamming in NK-OK’s blue bedroom, the pair joined forces to fuse a culturally exotic and jazz inspired duo which is thriving in London’s rejuvenated contemporary jazz scene.  The fluid arrangement of percussion, present in traditional jazz, compliments the millennial beat centring the tracks. The two have certainly mastered the trend of intertwining era’s without over-burning. The buffet of loose layers that gradually drift above one and other throughout many pieces where confirmed by the pair as introduced through improvisation during an interview with ‘Subtv Music’ at Citadel Festival 2018. These qualities fill the mutant approach to vocals that BLB takes on both albums ‘Xover’ and  ‘Time  Capsule’.  The  latter  being the pair’s most recent release. If my top picks are too soft on the ear,  or you perhaps acquire a faster pace, you’ll much appreciate the 2020 release.   

Be Africa 

A French guy once tried to convince me of his edgy techno taste which I hadn’t fully considered. Not yet at least. That was until he fawned over a particular song that grooved through me like a shock. I don’t normally warm to what feels like a continuous beat riddled techno song. However, my worn association with this genre was dissipating. This was, on the surface, a tribal kind of techno and I question how he discovered this gem. Without sponging the story to shreds, this cultural blend of sound was Central African Rubulic/Parisian BiBi Tanga & The Seletines ‘Be Africa’. 

In a bid to develop a catchy sound, the lyrics are kept bare and some the only English lyrics are that of the title. The warmingly native chant that conducts this African orchestra of sound is a master characteristic of afro-beat, being how this tribe like melody riddles your head. A power that would have been used for tribal purposes. As a techno rave moulds the room into one culture, tribal music illustrated the tribe.The repetitive rhythm is somewhat simple, as like western techno, but fails to burden the excitement. A comforting predictability that does not rob nor ironise the song’s freeing