ROMARE - Projections

These days, stylistic cross-breeding and cultural syncretism are hardly arguments likely to raise eyebrows, especially in a field like music, which has resorted to them with extreme ease (not to say sheer cheek) for decades now. Not to mention sound-collage: in an era in which there's someone who exploits this method only to then literally tear it to shreds, it's hardly a stroke of genius anymore, after all. If this certainly isn't a time of great revolutions, there's always the possibility of working with nuance, of carving out one's own expressive niche even through well-established compositional devices: Romare fits this hypothetical profile perfectly.

Based in the tireless English capital, with a solid apprenticeship behind him in the Uk-bass scene (two EPs in recent years attesting to his affiliation), Archie Fairhurst arrives at the Ninja Tune banner with a considerable wealth of experience and the desire to make his mark, paying tribute, why not, to the moniker he so proudly bears. In honour of the artist Romare Bearden, who through his oils and collages framed and interpreted the life of the African-American community, the English sound-artist's current work attempts a similar conceptual process, gathering sonic fragments drawn from Black musical culture both past and present, and recomposing them into unpredictable forms and juxtapositions, into expressive mélanges that keep in touch with their context of origin while at the same time broadening the vision and the imagery, transcending constraints of time and place. All in all, an operation that's anything but obvious, when approached with the right spirit.

Our man has infused the record with spirit in spades, scattered with precision and feeling across all fifty minutes of the effort, which for its part flows fluid and swift, without any unpleasant dips in tension and with a variety of touch that keeps attention fully engaged. A consummate collagist, Fairhurst controls the vastness of his raw material, having fun turning it inside out again and again like a sock, tinkering with colours, timbres and dynamics in a kaleidoscope that only ever grazes the edges of pop, more interested in probing other possibilities of contamination. Beneath the inventive blanket of a rich, sophisticated electronic sound that expresses itself with total freedom, moving effortlessly from the harmonious downtempo of "Nina's Charm" to the dreamy, jazzy-tinged electro of the closing "La petite mort", there bubbles up a scorching, uncontainable magma, in which echoes of Delta blues, far-off ragtime ghosts, soul fantasies and fragments of old Caribbean tunes coexist in perfect harmony, with no ethnographic intent whatsoever — indeed, the chief aim seems to be dissolving that very approach, overcoming its inherent limitations.

So while the insertion of old-time vocal elements into dance rhythmic textures might seem more familiar at first — as in "Roots" (which turns out to be astonishing in overturning initial impressions, morphing into an unsettling house-jam akin to the sensual inventiveness of Moodymann) — things become less predictable when the path leads to the sample-delic folds of "Ray's Foot", where old and new are chopped up and chewed over until they become indistinguishable, not to mention "Rainbow", which pairs the circular handling of sampled horns with remarkable care in diversifying the rhythmic side, torn between a breakbeat-like opening and a subsequent evolution into a deliciously sinuous garage key.

There's certainly no shortage of more relaxed sonic moments, such as the electro-jazz lightness of "Prison Blues", which at times brushes against the laid-back gestures of chillout music, or the fine melancholy that emerges from the bluesy coils of "Motherless Child" — but the truth is that dear Romare doesn't need cheap special effects or fleeting fireworks to hit the mark. Without inventing anything new, but with an iron-clad working logic and an artistic vision explored in depth, Archie Fairhurst has crafted a little gem. Should he keep working with such personality and freshness, the appointment with a truly great album might be just around the corner.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google

11/04/2015