Bernd Freidmann reaffirms his status as one of the most interesting genres-in-himself in electronic music.
[Release page] This artist has gone increasingly beat crazy as the years go by. Hitting his recording career stride in the early nineties as Nonplace Urban Field, Bernd Freidmann made some superior drum’n bass. At the very turn of the millennium, he made some superior digi-reggae as Burnt Friedman & The Nu Dub Players. As the decade progressed, he and the greatest drummer to emerge from the psychedelic haze of krautrock, Jaki Liebezeit, combined for four albums’ worth of “Secret Rhythms.” Impressive duo and group work with the likes of Atom Heart (Flanger), David Sylvian and Steve Jansen (Nine Horses), and The Embassadors only scratch the surface of a discography with too many entries to count—try yourself here.
But it is as the majordomo of research and development of rhythm that he is carving his name in stone. The onomatopoeiaical Bokoboko comes from the Japanese, like the other track titles, and means “uneven,” “hollow-sounding”—adjectives aptly describing the album’s dynamic grooves in all their variations, skin, steel and digital. Even his accompanists, particularly guitarist Joseph Suchy on “Mura,” are in thrall to the beat. Flights of electronic fancy sound like they were always intended to be heard to the bwang of tuned steel drums.
Despite registering at just under ten minutes, “Uzu,” which I believe means “impatient,” seems to go on spinning, whippy percussion forever, like a King Sunny Adé concert. Over the course of the album, Friedman manages to push the funk while also taking humourous little deconstructive potshots at it (“Deku No Bo”). Tail-swaying jazz, sarod-woodwind fusion and steamin’ but gleamin’ organ blues also poke their heads up through the many-hued hailstorm of percussion. And far from uneven, every downstroke is perfectly timed.
Burnt Friedman reaffirms his status as one of the most interesting genres-in-himself in electronic music.
Bokoboko is available on Nonplace. [Release page]
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