MO BOMA return with a startling musical statement. "Myths of the Near Future", part one, is the first in a trilogy of releases that meld world music with elements of jazz and experimental rock, ambient jungles with space age funk, first impressions with hairsplitting recomposition -- coherent, holistic, mature and passionate.
Since the release of "Jijimuge" on EXTREME, their critically acclaimed debut, Carsten Tiedemann has spent many months in Africa, continuing to explore the music and culture of the vibrant and diverse countries there. Tiedemann, in this time, has also produced and played on the "Big Waves" album with Robert Rutman, an album offering spectacular sound and transparency, where bowchimes cascade between orchestral sounds. MO BOMA's continuing instrumental work and development has broadened the orchestrations and added new textures and voices while retaining the intimacy and group sound which made "Jijimuge" a landmark in contemporary lucid dreaming. In addition to this, "Myths of The Near Future" seeks to bring respect and awareness to the music and people that are the catalyst for the eclectic, worldly vision of MO BOMA.
Skuli Sverrisson, originally
from Iceland and now living in New York, has been touring the world with the
Allan Holdsworth Band and is a founding member of MO BOMA. Sverrisson's
mastery of six string, fretless and baritone bases, with carefully applied
electronics, often shapes the lead voice and treble registers, while his low
end provides warmth, punch and creative musicianship, further emphasised by
his cathedral-like chord work. Synthesist Jamshied Sharifi, also currently
based in New York, has continued his contribution to the group as master player
and sound designer with subtle and astute additions to the soundscape.
There is a seamless quality to the music of MO BOMA, trancelike but earthen and at times irresistibly funky. "Myths of the Near Future", part one, recorded in Africa, Germany and New York, shows the unique voice of a group developing beyond "Jijimuge" without departing their musical identity. Trans-cultural and trans-technological, instinctively improvised archetypes beyond known forms, MO BOMA creates music that is both futuristic and organic.
This recording was produced using RSP Technologies' Circle Surround (TM) system. MO BOMA is the first group in the world to use the Circle Surround system in a recording. Circle Surround, previously known as Circle Sound, is the first system designed specifically for the production and reproduction of music in surround, in that it allows for full bandwidth of the rear speakers, in stereo, and provides dramatic channel separation within a multi-speaker surround environment. Circle Surround, drawing dimensional information through its unique steering technology alone, without changing the original sound, is used as a textural tool, a matrix through which ambience and processed sounds are able to function and breathe in ways previously impossible within conventional recoding mediums. Circle Surround creates dramatically expanded and enhanced soundscape, and in doing so welcomes the listener to a new audio world, as does the music of MO BOMA.
Extreme Press Release
Carbon and Silicon
The success of MYTHS lies in its brilliant utilization of technology to achieve music that has a natural beauty as strong as its computer component. Mo Boma is the child and machine of musicians who ride in the slipstream of extremes produces by the convergence of carbon and silicon instruments.
Most of the time it's
hard to tell where real world and virtual begin or
end, and the result is a rush of ideas that only masquerades as what some
would call music. Sampled field recordings from Africa, bowed electric
guitars, percussive strings and electronic pulses are intertwined in this
ambient soundscape. Sometimes you walk a clear cut path of rhythm and melody, at others a thicket of vines and weeds so dense you have to turn
back.
CMJ New Music Report
Mo Boma continue their work in blending light guitar fusion with traditional African percussion and rhythm styles. The results range from the joyful celebratory atmosphere of "Food of the Gods" to the running sensations of "Nyodi" to the soft night time dreaminess of "Garden of Time".
When not being part of
the mesmerizing rhythm texture, Skuli Sverrisson's
bass solos are more influenced by lead blues guitar than traditional
jazz. Primary instigator Carsten Tiedemann's guitar work also ranges a
wide territory, from bottleneck to soaring mournful cries to, most
effectively, oceanic waves. The latter style is used especially well on "Garden of Time", where the resonance's of the chords are allowed
to ebb
and wane without the sound of the initial strum.
Imagery is also of major
importance. "Jijimuge Three" starts with a
series of soft acoustic string instruments and synthetics, then develops
a light African beat over which wash guitar waves. The effect is that of
herds of animals moving across the savannah. "Mongombi", in which
an
Adrian Belew-like lead guitar leads and ensemble of joyous percussion
instruments. This song would have been a superior substitute for the
score used by the Disney Studio for Simba's presentation in "The Lion
King".
Michael C. Mahan, Alternative Press
Mo Boma's second release
explores the theme of journeys. A rickety cargo
plane opens its side hatch to reveal the steaming jungle below; the
loudest screech from a berry-plumed macaw to the tinny slither of a boa
constrictor's tongue diffuses through the humid foliage to engulf the
pilot and its crew ("Food of the Gods").
The iron gate entrance
to "Slolooblade: The Drowned World" rocks on
rusted hinges, swaying in the breeze of departed souls' melancholy cries.
"The Garden of Time" holds two lovers in eternal stasis, a hand
resting
slightly in the touch of the other as forest creatures drop golden leaves
at their immobile feet.
The synesthetic experience
of Myths of the Near Future combines world music instrumentation and subtle atmospheres with western influences in
moody rock.
Skuli Sverrisson's work
with electronically processed bass guitars, which
shares a common ground with the music of Michael Brook, reverberate
throughout the compositions of fellow member Carsten Tiedemann as would a
cry in a desert canyon - while initially retaining is identity in the
stark surroundings, the sound eventually molds itself to the landscape to
define and accentuate its curves and contours. (Note by CT: guitar and
bass are often confused in reviews; the ebow guitar is actually Michael
Brook's so-called "infinite guitar", which is an amazing little
device, the ebow, invented in the 70's, and powered by a 9V battery, which
will NOT run indefinitely)
In fact, most of the
songs on this album have their foundation in repetition. Different types of percussion instruments mimic the patterns
emanating form each other while the guitars echo similar responses. As
the songs continue, the patterns slowly evolve and change, producing more
intricate arrangements that lure the listener deeper into a jungle of growls and chirps, into a dense, tropical soundscape.
This disc, which was
recorded on three continents, succeeds in using
traditional styles and forms from a variety of continents to search
through otherworldly haunts and habitats.
Mike Woodring, CD Review
This disc is a jungle
journey walk through the rainforest without any of the new age hokum that cripples many like efforts. Each track conjures up
a world unto itself; spooky, lush and ethereal. Instrumentation employed is an engaging blend of the latest technology, ancient indigenous drums
and a myriad of sound samples. Central to "Myths ..." is an ambience
that guides the heart of the explorer, a Coney Island of the mind filtered
through a sonic National Geographic travelogue. On this album, Mo Boma provides a great escape that is as much an entrance into as an exit from.
Mark Sullivers, Culture Vulture
As ambient music becomes
more and more popular, I find myself searching for music off the beaten track on labels unaffected by dance publication
hype.
This second release of
Mo Boma is the first in a trilogy of releases that meld world instrumentation with jazz, freeform rock, ambient and funk,
causing a coherent and passionate transcultural and trans-technological improvisational environment. Top notch listening and some choice tracks
for the chill room as well.
Peter Wohelski, Trip Magazine
This one is difficult
to peg. Mo Boma cranks out a distinctive style that embraces techno-tribal, funk, ambient, minimalism, jazz, world music,
fusion, progressive rock, and much more. The closest point of reference is probably Jon Hassell. Certainly the Third World ambient funk and
repetitive styles are reminiscent of Hassell's more recent material.
However, one also finds Robert Fripp-like guitar riffs (Note: actually,
pitch shifted bass), and some ambient gestures that invoke the more ethereal work of Ryuichi Sakamoto as well as Jeff Greinke. Some of
Sverrisson's post-Jaco Pastorius bass improvisations are clearly derived from a straight-ahead fusion style and cast in ambient and exotic
surroundings. Whatever the similarities and influences, Mo Boma's work
transcends mere imitation and the resultant sound is distinctive and
gorgeous.
Dean Suzuki, Option Magazine
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