- Recent years have seen Waajeed use his Dirt Tech Reck label to experiment with a variety of warped club music. Last year, he appeared with Theo Parrish and Duminie DePorres on "Warrior Code," a sharp piece of broken beat on Sound Signature. He continues in this vein on the Shango EP. The record is indebted to Shango, the Yoruba god of thunder, dance and the drum, whose associated music O'Bryant says helped give his ancestors a sense of "who they were and where they were originally from." He harnesses these sounds on the title track, a searing tribal roller that features acoustic percussion thick on polyrhythmic texture. Its mbira loop is light and housey, but the booming horns and acidic synth swells give it an intimidating tone. They recall Pharoahe Monch more than, say, Osunlade.
The other tracks are warmer but no less complex. "Winston's Midnight Disco" has dense harmony at every turn, plus a funky and knobbly bassline, while "Better Late Than Never" shifts between clunky broken beat and techy Detroit house. The latter is the work of a musician with a command of deep rhythms.
TracklistA1 Better Late Than Never
A2 Shango
B1 Winston's Midnight Disco