Al Doum & The Faryds - Positive Force (2012)

We are super-excited to be co-releasing the sophomore album from Al Doum and the Faryds “Positive Force”. Their psychedelic infused mix of ethnic sounds, Arabian vibes and North African guitar music whilst channelling the spirit of your favourite cosmic explorers (Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Sun RA,…) feels like the perfect fit to our label’s aesthetic.

The group, a six-piece hailing from Northern Italy, or possibly outer space, are part of an emerging psychedelic scene and rich history of progressive music. Al Doum & the Faryds, whether live or on record, is an experience not to be missed – a global sound of freak-out heroics. If their first self-titled album was a revelation, then Positive Force is nothing short of landing the goddam mothership. Opening track “Sinai” explodes under the percussive drive of tribal rhythms and exotic grooves – a melting pot of Nigerian sounds, Funkadelic’s “Free your mind…” and Woodstock-era Santana all beamed from outer space via the interstellar body of Coltrane.

But it’s also the recording and mixing courtesy of mentor “El Guscio” that’s the unsung genius here. The horns have an infectious reverb and delay that can only come from old school style strategic placing of the microphones during recording to allow the sound to breathe. The guitars have a warmth of tone like those super 45’s courtesy of Iruoje’s Lagos productions. Even the spoken vocals at the start of “Earth” seem to float in the air with a haunting beauty, as if in the echo chamber of an old temple, or is that the space chamber from Kubrick’s 2001. Lucid meanderings of electric blues doused in Arabian psychedelics over sparse percussion eventually gives way to the captivating baroque and Gregorian chanting of our cosmic travellers “On A Spaceship” – this is truly music from another place.

Each side is uninterrupted, a continuous stream of consciousness - three tracks joined by short untitled improvised pieces demonstrating the Faryds’ at their most explorative. “Rahjan Creek” and “Lava” expand these themes and have the feeling of ragas and repeating loops played by free-form collectives of desert travellers. “Ship of Joy” most evokes the spirit of the sound of Afro-beat and the Ghanaian blues of artists like Ebo Taylor, pinned by a desert groove of organic bass. The key to the Al Doum sound is the triple drum and percussion set-up which gives the music a driving force over which the other musicians lay their craft – interweaving lines of guitar, bass, sax and flute creating a sonic tapestry of acoustic vibes, electric sounds and esoteric patterns.