Jump to content

Gonjasufi


blind-fitter

Recommended Posts

Gonjasufi is a rapper, singer, disc jockey and yoga teacher from San Diego, California and currently living in Las Vegas, Nevada. He has been releasing music since the early 1990s among the San Diego Hip Hop scene, notably with the Masters of the Universe crew.His debut album on the UK label Warp, "A Sufi and a Killer" was released earlier this year. (I'm paraphrasing all this from a well-known website).

To be honest, I only heard Gonjasufi for the first time a couple of weeks ago, when the album was playing in a record shop I was browsing. I went to the counter and politely demanded to know what it was. Unable to purchase that day, I managed only a few days of restraint before capitulating to my insatiable desire to own the damned thing.

Gonjasufi's voice has been described as "a scraggly, scary, smoked-out croak that creeps like the spiritual offspring of George Clinton and Leadbelly" (Pitchfork), also as "warped, wheezing, stoned and dusty". Think of Tom Waits, Tricky and Nina Simone after a particularly heady night on the whacky-baccy, and you might be getting the picture.

He has been described as "a freewheeling nomad who wanders wherever his creative impulse takes him", and it's true that "A Sufi and a Killer" is a genre-transcending record, a patchwork of languid stoner blues, acid-fried garage, paranoid trip-hop, acid folk, soul,kitschy Bacharachesque pop, even a smidgeon of bubbly electro...It's not really like anything else I've ever heard. But I'd recommend it to anyone who hasn't been deterred by my description so far.

I will link to some tracks as tasters, although I do feel that this is an album to be appreciated as a whole and in sequence- in which case it works brilliantly. I'm not sure how well it works, conversely, listening to tracks on an individual basis. Some albums are like that.

"She's Gone"

"CandyLane"

"Dust"

"Change"

"Ancestors"

"Kowboys & Indians"

"Holidays"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...
  • 7 months later...

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...