Afro-Mystik – Morphology

This is San Francisco based Afro-Mystik’s second album on Om Records, following up on 1999’s successful debut release “Future Tropic”. Recording as a six piece live ensemble, they attempt to provide house with a kind of resuscitation in the form of tribal/afro/latino influences. Adding a live touch to the scene and drawing on some diverse influences, soulful singing from Omega and more MC driven rhymes by Capitol A augment these global beats.

The album generally follows the Jazzanova or Saint Germain vibe, complex percussion dominates with some delicious melodies wandering over the top. Radio One listeners will certainly put this into the ‘Worldwide’ category; jazzy house with African and Latin infused drumming is the order of the day. ‘Who are you?’ stands out with it’s fat electro-bass, and loose baggy groove. Capitol A gets going with a smooth lyrical stream over the top, jiving beautifully with the instrumental. My fave was ‘Anything You Want’, on which the diverse percussive influences develop nicely, also has some good breakdowns. The slick production and great layering gets a little swamped by the vocals for me - look out for the instrumental. The soulful strut and global rhythms of new single ‘Natural’ will certainly appeal to those organic/ethno house headz out there. As I continued to listen to “Morphology”, sort of blendeding into one, it seems to get stuck in a furrow and you’re waiting for something to lift the canvas somewhat. This album certainly gets into a good groove, but appears content to leave it there, rather than taking it to the next level.

Afro-Mystik continue to tread that broken beat/house path, using Latin and African inspired percussive rhythms and soulful singing to round out their sound. But while with Jazzanova/4 Hero/Saint Germain the sound is developed to a new level, Afro-Mystik appear content to leave their music ‘in between’, only taking the occasional risk. House and Nu Jazz fans will dig this, personally I was hoping for a bit more from a promising fusion. The production was certainly impressive however, and I think there should be some good remixes forthcoming.