A subtly spectacular, bizarre surprise
Charlie Quaker | Normal, IL. | 03/20/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Debut from San Diego yoga instructor who has performed with Masters Of the Universe,
Killowattz, Gaslamp Killer & Flying Lotus. This is haunting, dreamlike, psychedelic trip-hop
filtered through a mystic & gritty haze. You'll hear bits of deconstructed tropical island ballad pop,
lo-fi garage/noise psych rock, Middle Eastern/Indian ethnic strains, smooth funk, electro-
experimental cabaret minimalism, & more. This global, beat-driven psychedelia is both strangely
demented and surprisingly brilliant. Shades of Portishead, Sun Araw, MF Doom, Tom Waits,
Ariel Pink, Sunset, Gary War.
"
The first great album of the tens
mr. flux | Boston, MA | 04/16/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"So much music recorded in the so-called zeroes or aughts seems to have been about genre bending, juggling and all other manner of genre manipulation. Not that it has never been done before. Discussions are ongoing, and I suppose we will not know for some time how the zeroes changed popular music. Music rating sites like [...] do not give five stars to recent albums. This is either because I am not finding them, they don't appreciate the genius of new music, there is no more great new music anymore, or it takes time to know whether a particular album is worth the accolade. Not that allmusic is the arbiter of music, but the writers or those and other sites like Pitchfork spend time listening, thinking and writing about music. They deserve, and get, at least some attention.
allmusic gave A Sufi and a Killer four stars, but I imagine that rating will be upgraded to five (as it should with the Flaming Lips' Embryonic, just to name one) with time. This is simply an innovative, fresh-sounding piece of music. It's world music and it sounds as fresh now as Manu Chao's Clandestino sounded upon its release. It is Portishead and Tom Waits. There are parts that Quentin Tarrantino would use for something. It is a beautiful and sad and trippy piece of work. But in all of this, given all those influences, the album does not sound derivative. There is a timeless quality here and that is why I believe this album will last. It's been produced by, among others, Flying Lotus. Los Angeles, Flying Lotus' album of last year, was terrific, but it never sounded timeless. It was an exercise in awesome grooves. So was Endtroducing when I bought it upon its release. The former seems to have fallen into obscurity; the latter is a classic.
Is Sufi and a Killer a future classic or a minor infatuation? I don't know. But it's the kind of album that is worth having now because it has all the making of a classic. On top of that, it's a lot of fun."
DOPE!
Nicolas | San Diego, CA | 03/18/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I heard a track from this LP on some Italian radio online and loved it. It was the song "Sheep" and had a great mix of old sixties psychdelia and then some Indian music. All in all the tracks are really sweet and they have mixed up 60's rock, middle eastern scales, funk and whatever else.
Production on the disc was pretty intensive you can tell. Many tracks have that old scratchy record sound, which adds to the texture I think. Gonjasufi is a yogi/rapper from San Diego and he had a bit of help from some great DJs (like Flying Lotus and Gaslamp Killer) for this album.
Definitely a nice addition to the scene and it is an interesting listen that is all over the place - in a good way - think Beck or Gnarls Barkley. You'll love it!"
Track Listings (19) - Disc #1