New chapter of the French producer OZFERTI, “DRUM LANGUAGE” proposes a new artistic direction.
While these previous opuses like SOLARIUS GAMMA, TIGRIGNA XPRMNT highlighted the Ethiopian territory in all its musical diversity, “DRUM LANGUAGE” is more CLUB, more electronic, darker.
SWEAT, the first track of the album, is the soundtrack of urban afternoons crushed by the heat. A dry, nervous
beat, inspired both by English grime and its tempo at 140 bpm, but also by more Afro house sounds.
The slightly “acidic” bassline in spirit adds to this moist vibe that emanates from the track.
We continue with ZOMBIES GO TO BAILE, an end-of-the-world baile funk with industrial textures. A nod to the
films of GEORGIO ROMERO. Perhaps also, an arrangement that is intended to be naive and mocking, denouncing the abuses of certain club evenings where psychotropic drugs artificially create this now lost connection between the dj and the dancer. “What happened to the DJ? What happened to the dancer? What happened to the music? What happened to the love of music? “ (Dj Pierre)
NEON JUNGLE has a more tribal approach, mixing house, breaks, bass music. The chiseled samples of the balafon, and the entanglement of the percussions are an invitation to trance, in an urban jungle where LEDs and neons punctuate the journey.
ENDLESS NIGHTS is inspired by GQOM rhythms and productions from South Africa. A technoid piece which
increases in power until the last minutes. A telluric bass completes the dark and hallucinated atmosphere of the
production. Born from long insomnias and post-covid trauma, ENDLESS NIGHTS is a cry of rage to break the
silence of sleepless nights.
BONGOBLEEP, the next track, is more Lo-Fi in approach. As if a dilapidated arcade terminal was catapulted into a lost harbor in the Congolese highlands. With its falsely naive direction, BONGOBLEEP assumes its efficiency to fill the dancefloors.
WAVES, starts with wispy textures before morphing into a hybrid afrohouse track. Aquatic and syncopated, the
production here is more experimental and polished. Mixing futuristic beats with traditional flavours.
COME TO DUST, the following piece seems carved in rough rock from an Ethiopian TIGRAY temple. The powerful and minimal percussion gives way to samples of KRAR (Ethiopian Lyre) which punctuate the piece. There too, a more tribal direction which is reminiscent of NEON JUNGLE.
FREAKS concludes the album with fireworks. A mix of breaks, bass music and afroclub. An invitation to free ourselves from any dogma, label, which partition our lives and often make our social interactions hermetic. A joyful defouloir in a falsely connected world.
Thus, through these 8 tracks, “DRUM LANGUAGE” is a mutation of the OZFERTI sound, born from the frustration of the post-covid years. At the same time cry of revolt, joyful liberation; a bittersweet vision of the leaden years that followed the “world before”.
As usual, the producer/illustrator, aficionado of D.I.Y., mixes musical and visual work through abstract illustrations accompanying the tracks, as well as an animated teaser visible on the artist’s social networks
Maybe more nervous and raw, this new serie of 8 furious beats, is for nightclub dancers, night freaks, aventurous dj's and sonic radios.
Came back to this release the other week and it was a stark reminder of its brilliance. Punishingly low subs, mind bending percussive polyrhythms & clipped samples combine for an at times intense listen that'll satisfy any fans of labels like Skull Disco and alike Bingle Beats
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