As an avid, yet picky, modern world music follower, sixdegrees records gets my attention from time to time (and they rarely disappoint). Zaman 8 is an emerging artist on sixdegrees. They have my FULL attention right now.
The recently released album, Suryaghat EP 2, is outstanding. It is beautifully arranged, performed, and recorded. It feels very modern and natural. The music pulls from many ethnic styles but you also feel the more recent influences of Hip Hop, Jazz, and other urban/groove based styles.
One song in particular that I’m looping non stop is “Mangala”. It brings you in with reversed tabla responding to an ever growing layer of drum kit beats and a solid bass melody. Then comes in a very hooky and sparse sax line, changing bass lines and more beat exchanges. It ends with a complete story and doesn’t waste your brain on an endless “worldy music jam”.
If you digg this music and live in NYC or Tokyo, I also highly recommend checking out a live show of a world-dub collective carrying a similar torch: Dub Nomads. The mixologist behind this group also has two very good downtempo dub albums on eMusic with his band Chimp Beams.
i love six degrees! i missed this release earlier.