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Gonjasufi

Gonjasufi
A Sufi and A Killer
(Warp)
www.myspace.com/gonjasufi

It’s fair to say any record on Warp comes with a fair amount of expectation. These may be expectations of quality, sure, but also expectations for music that will push the boundaries of genre. Queue the debut record from Gonjasufi; a sprawling psychedelic voyage backed by hip hop beats.

With production credits from Flying Lotus, Gaslamp Killer and Mainframe it sure comes with some credibility, but it’s difficult at first to work out its audience. There are definitely some catchy beats, but the instrumentation is mostly fuzzy and abrasive with a strong eastern presence. As ever with Warp, then, you’re probably best off throwing genres out the window and digging the sounds for what they are.

Somehow A Sufi and A Killer manages to house folk, acid rock and hip hop sounds cohesively under one roof; as the acoustic bliss of Sheep successfully shares a record with the comparatively clean cut production on Holidays and Candylane.

Gonjasufi’s vocals are reminiscent of freak folk songwriter Devendra Banhart, and while potentially divisive, work well in my humble opinion. Check out the suitably psychedelic video for dedNd below, which should offer some insight into what this record is all about.

Sleekly Lion.