The Sorcerers – Selftitled (2015)
The exploration of sound and texture can lead us in many different directions. It can be a difficult road to navigate, leading to many different adventures along the way. How much you enjoy the trip depends on how well you handle the fluctuation in atmosphere. At times the blood boils with the difficulties of the creative soul. You struggle to maintain your composure. Sweating it out, you pull at your shirt collar. With each new confrontation of sound, are you looking for the shade? Most music fans prefer to avoid the stress, and instead seek out music, films and art that is much more comfortable.
That shelter usually takes the form of the familiar and ordinary. Typically, the retro/nostalgia of classic rock or some other musical genre that relies on past glories. We just settle in and relax. Turn off your brain (and emotions). No need to push yourself or the boundaries. Unfortunately, this is the place were too many music fans decide to live. Let me suggest that we pay an extraordinary cost for this cultural laziness. Please, no more celebrations of Led Zeppelin II or Abbey Road. Enough said.
The Sorcerers take us along another road. A unique mix of rare, cinematic library music and traditional Ethiopian Jazz permeats the session. Each track travels through both the traditional and avant-garde spectrum. The plastic funk of Italian library and soundtrack music gives the record a wonderful greasy atmosphere that is irresistible once the groove hits.
How to best describe the music? Below is my internal dialogue, as I listened to the album for the first time; (See if your reaction is similar to mine)
Track 1. Time signatures move in uncomfortable directions: “Is something off?! Why did I purchase this album?” Track 2. The percussion and keyboards are uneasy and difficult: “I can’t relax. No more purchases without sampling!” Track 3. The music morphs creating a fusion of cuban rumba and cinematic funk: “I need another beer and a coffee.” (Yes, I enjoy multiple beverages). Track 4. The boundaries of texture and sound explode; “Let’s dance on the balcony so everyone can see us”.
This is a album that refuses to comply with our expectation of mediocrity in popular music. Taping into the rich tradition of Ethiopian music without being trapped any limitations. It’s all about charting their own adventure. Can’t imagine what the try next. A surprising gem.
by Shawn Ciavattone
Led Zeppelin II and Abbey Road are fantastic albums! Sorry to be the loud angry guy at the dance party but denigrating anything because its familiar doesn’t add up for me. Does that mean we should stop reading Dostoevsky and F Scott Fitzgerald because they’ve been around too long? Having said that, I completely agree that familiar means comfortable and humans are conditioned to stay with what they know. Pushing the boundaries in music, art, literature, movies, whatever is always difficult and often the creators of such work are met with scorn or, more likely, complete indifference. I’m all for it and agree that we have to force ourselves to open up to the new. However, that doesn’t mean the old sucked or should not be appreciated. Especially, if, in it’s time, it WAS the new.
I’d hoped my slaying of these two sacred albums would provoke some thinking. I’m sorry, Kevin but I wouldn’t make the comparison you suggest. The Fab Four and Percy & Company are hardly Fitzgerald or Dostoevsky. Secondly, both Abbey Road and II are incredibly over-rated records that deserve to be exposed as such. Even if you disagree with my assessment, I would suggest that instead of people repurchasing these holy grails over and over, listeners could discover a new artist or musician. These albums have been given their due. Enough is enough.
Hey guys! I don’t want to dominate the comments and honestly hope many others add their two cents, pro or con. I did want to reiterate that I’m all for people discovering new things. And creating new rules. Absolutely. Also, I think the discussion on how literature ages is worthy of further debate but this is not the place. My main point, which I will shut up about after this (I swear), is that familiarity breeds contempt and sometimes I think that gets confused with judging the quality of the thing itself.
I wouldn’t compare music to literature or other art forms either, they’re simply not comparable. And age in a very different way due to being different mediums- words age better than celluloid and tape. Dostojevski and Led Zeppelin sounds like a powerful comparison, but is as valid for me as comparing LZ to Top Gun or Kubrick.
We must step out of the comfort zone and stop praising popular artists like if they were gods, sometimes the media/critics can be very harmful. It doesn´t mean that all these huge and widely recognizable bands are horrible, there are truly honorable exceptions. But still, there is a whole universe to discover !.
I´m listening to this record right now (again, I had no idea about The Sorcerers). Thank you for bringing such rare and unexpected recommendations, Shawn. I´m sure that many people are grateful to discover this challenging blend of complex sounds.
By the way, I´ve been listening to “Virgins” by Tim Hecker (based on your old VW review). It´s a mind-blowing and absolutely beautiful album, it has become one of my favorites (hope I can get the Vinyl).
Also, I can say the same thing about Black Flower´s “Future Flora”, brilliant album.
Thank you for the comments Octávio But really I’m very pleased that you like the Tim Hecker record Virgins. It’s an extraordinary record. And would probably make it into any top 10 list I would put together The sleeve art alone is an important reminder of the type of imperialist brutality empires like the US are capable of. However “exceptional” they claim to be.
Completely new to me. ”Pinch Of The Death Nerve” is brilliant track, I can listen it on and on. Beer and coffee simultaneously. Incredible band, thanks for introduction, Shawn.
I need to check also the new album ”In Search Of The Lost City Of The Monkey God”
Thank you. I hadn’t heard of the new album. Just found it on band camp. Maybe Saliha gets a new review from me.
Excellent pick once again!
This is great record. And fun too. Thank you for the comment.
Creepy in a lovely way – imagine a foot tapping mummy!
Or a foot-tapping skeleton
Sold out ☹️
I’m sorry about that. But it’s out there. And the reissue sounds great.