It’s hard not feel like a charmed snake rising up from the darkness when cast under the sinuous spell of Azmari’s Abyssai Wandering. The music of this band is very hypnotic – such is their gift to enchant!
At just over six minutes long, Abyssai Wandering is a delectable feast of heavy-heady bass, progressive rhythms and the most bendy, coiling melody you can imagine! Designed to absorb and expand the mind, this track appears on their most recent album, Maelström, and it’s hard not to get completely lost in this sound!
Specialising in fusions of psychfunk, afrobeat, ethiojazz and dub came together in Brussels in 2015. Completely open to many forms of sonic experimentation, this band are exploratory and have been crafting a very unique tapestry of musical explorations for sometime now – nearly a decade, in fact! Combining intricate jazz textures with hypnotic oriental influences, mesmerising ethio-grooves and hearty deep funk, they also like to add the off beats of dub rhythms into the mix.
With influences including the likes of Heliocentrics, Whitefield Brothers, Surprise Chef, Antibalas, Mulatu Astatke, Kikagaku Moyo and Sons of Kemet to inspire, its hardly surprising their sound is a heady amalgamation of all of the above – but they have still managed to define their own sound. Azmari are cosmic and futuristic in places, yet high on past traditions in others. Their ability to tie in such a spectrum of sounds is one of the reasons I really appreciate what they do! Check out today’s delight above and if you want to hear more, I’ve pasted Maelström below, but you can also hear earlier releases on their Bandcamp page, here. Enjoy!
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