Bass, Sweat & Tears

Album Review

A good 20 years into his career as a producer, mixer, keyboardist and general mixmaster of all things dubby, worldbeaty and bass-wise, Gaudi is still creating some of the most intoxicating electronic music out there. His latest full-length release breathes new life into that most tired of artistic cliches: the Musical Journey. Taking source material from such far-flung locales as Iran, Burkina Faso, Pakistan, India, Papua New Guinea, the Amazon rain forest and Western Europe, Bass, Sweat & Tears brings all of its disparate parts together to create a kaleidoscopic but unified celebration of the deep, loamy groove. As usual, dubwise reggae is the common thread that binds everything together, but that common foundation supports a brilliantly multifaceted structure that features flamenco hip-hop ("Babylon Flamenco," from the Spanish band Ojos de Brujo), Franco-African hip-hop ("Chaine a Chaine," featuring rapper Eric Dah "Mozieu"), rain forest reggae ("Native Dub") and pygmy electronica ("Tribalove"). Really, you could probably define a new musical genre with just about every track on this album, and yes, that's a compliment. Highly recommended.