but suits their sound)
Mi Ami “African Rhythms”
from African Rhythms 12” (White Denim)
Tough guy godwave rave 8.0
Two of D.C. 's splattery, early-00s Black Eyes
—bassist Jacob Long
(apparently/ sadly minus his sax, but sometimes with a
keyboard as well as bass)
and guitarist Daniel Martin-McCormick—moved to San Francisco
a few years ago, and formed Mi Ami with De-e-e-troit
Techno Murder City refugee and drummer Damon Palermo.
Mon Ami
acknowledge the influence of dub, techno and Afrobeat, but their
somewhat downplayed jazz studies (like, in school, even!) also
pertain. Mainly in a Milesian Tales way:
just as Miles Davis's
late '60s-to-
just as Miles Davis's
late '60s-to-
early-'70s recordings often put bass, drums, guitar, and keyboards
up front, with Miles's trumpet gradually turning background into
foreground, and/or vice versa, compulsively tweaking a sense
of deep focus, so
of deep focus, so
Martin-McCormick's never still, but small (as filtered) voice
chatters and wails behind the (rest of) the rhythm section, also
shadowing his stuttery guitar, which sometimes rises into crisis (as
does the voice, more often), before either or both crash-land on the
one, which is always making short, sharp phrases amidst the mists of
granulated notes in the music pump.
But it's not all work! "African Rhythms" is a hellapalooza evolution
of Black Eyes' mega-percussion cussin', plus flag-waving(-rippling, -
writhing) guitar apparitions: just good clean fun, and suitable for
your prom, if you and your date take all your vitamins. On Mi Ami's
MySpace page, there's also a remix, "Arhythms," by Rickey Rabbit, DJ
of Mon Ami tourmates and hiphopologists Food For Animals. Rabbit
pumps some of the song into a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon,
which gets pretty friendly with passing buildings. But it's not a
"producer's record":
Martin-McCormick is also encouraged to sunburst
his guitar through some office windows, inspecting some folders and
tasting some latte.
Also on their Myspace page, and on Mon Ami's first release, the 12"
vinyl single [i]African Rhythms[/i], the title song is followed by
"Clear Light," which at first seems like a nice respite from the
parade, a sweet chill spot. But soon comes a reminder that "clear
light" is the stage of the acid trip when colors have just been
peeled, and the lounge turns out to be liminal: The vibe is washed
clean and stands raw, charged by the change and the falling away.
Deep focus prevails, however, as a march is folded into the bass. The
voice gets hung on a note, pulls back, eventually gets free enough to
chatter on back there (warning to some: DMM's vocally on the
periphery, like Perry Farrell always should be
—but a likeness keeps
flickering by). On the MySpace, "Ark Version" then uses ominously
magisterial organ to track the voice along a railroad of bass and
drums, switching tracks just a little whenever a freak-out approaches—
but "Ark Of The Covenant" is born in crisis, and, despite fleeting
mentions of deities, "I wish I was dead" are the most clearly heard
words on a Mi Ami recording so far. But the currents pull them on
along (no spoilers here: hearing is the true believing, and no matter
where they're going, these tracks will address every muscle in your
head). On the 12", "Clear Light" is more like the slower, deeper
adagio between the allegrolicious "African Rhythms" and "Feel You,"
which marches trouble around at a brisker tempo than "Clear Light."
"Summer-summer-summer-summer-summer-summer-go-WAY," orders
Martin-
McCormick, but also he might be ending with "Buy me a car," so
there's hope for the boy yet (good to know somebody still believes in
> something).
...
