Dabrye

Morrow vs. Hajduch

Morrow vs. Hajduch: Africa Hitech’s 93 Million Miles

Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.

Africa Hitech: 93 Million MilesAfrica Hitech: 93 Million Miles (Warp, 5/10/11)

Africa Hitech: “Glangslap”

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Hajduch: Africa Hitech is an electronic duo comprised of jack-of-all-trades Mark Pritchard (Harmonic 33, Global Communication, Harmonic 313) and Steve Spacek. Following an EP last year, this debut LP on Warp is a lurching exploration of juke beats, swirling synthscapes, acid squelch, hip-hop menace, and the breakneck tempo of South African dance music.  Though initially it seems like an overwhelming listen, there’s a lot to pick apart, and plenty of hooks to latch onto even when the rhythms are hard to grasp.

Morrow: The rhythms strike me as intricate in a subtle way.  There are different layers doing different things, but like most of Pritchard’s other work, there’s plenty of minimalism, usually involving a basic dance beat.  These danceable polyrhythms are the real shared trait between 93 Million Miles and African music.  Outside of a few drum samples on tracks such as “Spirit,” the album otherwise is heavy on the Detroit techno sound of Pritchard’s Harmonic 313.

SMM: Context

Record Review: Ghostly International’s SMM: Context

SMM: ContextV/A: SMM: Context (Ghostly International, 3/1/11)

Christina Vantzou: “11 Generations of My Fathers”

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In most cases, if the typical, well-respected independent label were to take a risk in compiling an ambient-heavy compilation with artists who were mostly unknown outside their respective hyper-insulated circles, most fans of that label would probably skip the compilation without much thought.

But then there is Ghostly International, a Ann Arbor, Michigan-based label with an eclectic roster comprising Matthew Dear, Loscil, Shigeto, and Dabrye, among others. For its new compilation record, Ghostly chose to dust off SMM, an offshoot of the label created back in 1994, to present a refined aesthetic within a particular — to borrow from the compilation’s title — Context.