Gonjasufi – MU.ZZ.LE

Sumach Ecks – a ‘Las Vegas based yoga teaching hip hop mystic’. Now there's an epithet you don't come across very often. Ecks records under the name of Gonjasufi and is clearly a character as unique as his music.

Checking out the @gonjasufi twitter feed reveals posts such as 'the path to enlightenment is the darkest one', 'surround yourself with leaders not followers' and 'shed your sense of entitlement, the world owes you nothing'.

Word on the web is that MU.ZZ.LE was recorded in the Mojave desert outside of Vegas with Gonjasufi himself and fellow San Diegan, Psychopop, on production duties. Close your eyes and it doesn't take much to be transported to the desert heat through these dusty nuggets of moody psychedelic madness. The production features woozy breaks and samples suffused with crackly warmth as if pumped through a mixing desk buried deep within the Nevada sands.  Gonjasufi's voice undergoes further treatment. There's plenty of dubby echo and bandpass filter transistor radio effects that contribute to the feeling that it's all being played off a beaten up sand filled gramophone.

At times Gonjasufi's croaks are barely perceptible and Tricky-esque, at others his vocals are delivered in that kind of detached careless weed heavy style that only a lifetime of blunts can create. His wife is also brought in to contribute vocals with great effect on the Portishead-like 'Feedin' Birds'. On 'Nikels and Dimes' we hear 'Your breadcrumbs my friend could feed them again' over a rattler of a classic break and Wurlitzer style organ.  'Timeout' features wigged out discordant chanting over a crashing break and glum scratchy piano line.  'The Blame' is probably the most immediately accessible listen marrying guitar, harmonica and swirling synth strings to lyrics battling with a dark inner self:  'Every time I go somewhere, I feel the dread inside their eyes'.  

On final track 'Sniffin' the words are scrunched up, barely perceptible and weaving in and out of crazed distortion and echo – there's a message here but it's virtually impossible to make out through the clatter of sound.

MU.ZZ.LE is a hallucinatory journey into the thoughts and sounds of a man at unease with the world. Yes, it's initially a touch glum, bizarre and pretty dark a listen but there are many brilliantly positive spiritual messages that are delivered from the heart here and across subsequent listens these tracks start to form an important and deeply unique release.

MU.ZZ.LE is out now on Warp Records

www.warp.net/gonjasufi

Review by Andy Gillham  www.twitter.com/andyechaskech