Available on: Sacred Rhythm 12″

Stream sample here

I’m all for the idea of house music as an all-unifying ideology bringing together man, nature and machine, but let’s face it: sometimes you listen to an Osunlade track and just think “are you having a laugh”?

This new single by Mampo, a.k.a. Sacred Rhythm label boss Joe Claussell though, is really special. Like Ital’s recent ‘Culture Clubs’, it brings together sounds that should harmonically resist each other yet jar to glorious effect, but where that track was like watching more and more paint cover the wall of a New York gallery, this one spirals further and further into the undergrowth of a rainforest. Tribal chants and percussion are the constants, but over the course of this track’s 12 and a half minutes piano, harp, and a gloriously spacey Moog solo each get time to shine, with the second half of it driven forward by a bassline that all but knocks the wind out of you.

Chris Campbell