- Damon Bell is both a trained percussionist and one of California's most respected spinners, a DJ's DJ whose sets are treasured by local connoisseurs. Both facts shine through on his debut album, Blues For The Libyan. It's a record awash with African and Latin American polyrhythms, and one that elegantly builds to and descends from its peak of percussive mania. The only problem is that at the album's apex, "Libyan Ether" and "Rhythm Meat" form a dense, almost impenetrable core.
We start in shallower waters. "Chromosome Replacement," with vocalist Khalil Anthony, could be an unusually sophisticated Art Department track. It's soulful pop-house of a sinewy, slippery, rhythmically febrile kind. The classicist Detroit techno of "Striving To Be Who We Are" is thrown off-centre by unfurling strands of jazz piano, while the dub reggae and Fela Kuti influences on "Kampala" turn a potentially trite piece of disco house into a sweltering stomp of heavyweight funk.
Even in its lighter moments, Blues For The Libyan hardly lacks complexity. In keeping with Deepblak's experimental output, "Rhythm Meat" with Afrikan Sciences and "Libyan Ether" (both of which sound like several tracks playing at once, evoking everything from Autechre to Flying Lotus) are a significant lurch to the left. They're disorienting and difficult tracks, and once you digest them, they still sound like experiments that missed the mark. It's a stark contrast to "Broken Feathers," which—with its thunderous low-end, percussive frenzy and tight loops of tinny plucked strings—is a deeply peculiar moment of dance floor ecstasy. It teeters thrillingly on the edge of chaos, rather than being mired in it.
Tracklist01. Chromosome Replacement feat. Khalil Anthony
02. Concrete Caravan
03. Blood
04. Striving To Be Who We Are
05. Rhythm Meat
06. Lybian Ether feat. Afrikan Sciences
07. Broken Feathers
08. Kampala (DBo Vershun)