Mi Ami (published edit)

(Uncut was previously posted)(don't know why surviving copy turned black&purple,
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-

 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

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).

...