Comprised of guitarist Niclas Knudsen, drummer Stefan Pasborg and Jeppe Tuxen on Hammond B-3, Ibrahim Electric playfully welds the baroque conventions of jam band music to a strong improvisatory chassis. Absinthe echoes the vaguely hallucinatory properties of liquor named in its title with an LP-sized selection of nine cuts that mines the vagaries of the collective’s record collection. “Blue Balls” and “Yamshala” start with organ-centric psychedelics in the mold of The Zombies and Doors and mix in some heavier Sabbath-style blues riffage. “Lobi” brings the Arabic and African proclivities hinted in the band name to the forefront in a percolating synthesis of Afrobeat and Raï styles while “Splash” about-faces into vintage Booker T & the MGs territory, Tuxen’s B-3 working from a chugging “Green Onions”-like vamp. “Arabian Boogaloo” mixes Korla Pandit roller-rink fills with Shadows-style guitar reverb and “En Kold Fra Kassen” could work beautifully as a Seventies cop show outtake, Starsky & Hutch style fuzz bass anchoring a slinky groove. The latter piece stretches to ten minutes, Knuden’s arpeggios snaking out across a slippery backbeat. It’s so tight and funky you can practically picture the Striped Tomato screeching down a side street in hot pursuit of perps to the strains. The three players sign-off with the schizophrenic title track, the craziest of the bunch. A chorus of voices intones a faux Gregorian chant prior to another a synth and organ-fronted rave-up that recalls early Santana and Kraftwerk, how’s that for odd bedfellows? Stunt’s usual high production values on packaging present a nice complement to the music with period line drawings and the catch phrase: “Known and enjoyed by Connoisseurs for more than a Century.” It’s not difficult to conjecture these fellows raking in the shekels on the tour circuit and teaching grizzled jam band fogeys like Widespread Panic and Galactic a thing or three in process.
[Stunt titles are available direct through Stateside Distributors: Stateside AT prodigy.net]
~ Derek Taylor
Posted by derek on December 16, 2006 9:54 AM.................................................. © 2003 - 2006 bagatellen ..................................................