Bill Posted April 14, 2015 Share Posted April 14, 2015 Master Margherita Afro Dots Blue Hour Sounds Tracklist: 1. Master Margherita & The Positronics - Frogs Dub2. Master Margherita & The Positronics - Gaia Dub (Protogenos Mix)3. [De]composer - Etude Simple II "Aleksej" (Master Margherita Remix)4. Kliment - 3db (Master Margherita Remix)5. Master Margherita - Sync Mode (Midi Mix)6. Master Margherita - Strobe7. Master Margherita, Mr Pink, Elvis Lobo - Bump Ride (Blue Hour Mix)8. Master Margherita - For Aldo (Hanfstengel Remix)9. Master Margherita & Ermetico - Freude10. Master Margherita & Ermetico - Sei Otto (Original Mix)11. Master Margherita & Ermetico - Campana12. Master Margherita & Ermetico - Capodanno13. Master Margherita & The Positronics - Santana Dub14. Master Margherita - Blue Energy Part 115. Master Margherita - Blue Energy Part 216. Master Margherita - Rototom (Skin Mix)17. Master Margherita - Tyrel Dub (Belgaroth Mix)18. Grouch - Indifference (Master Margherita Remix)19. Master Margherita - Spirit Dub (Ghost Mix)20. Master Margherita & The Positronics - Scrumptious (Shorcake Mix)21. Master Margherita & Ermetico - Sei Otto (Hibernation remix)22. Master Margherita - Blue Fish (Sunrise Mix) Afro Dots is a very ambitious album - twenty-two tracks long with a meandering spirit that crosses several different styles of mid-tempo and down tempo styles before its journey is over. Naturally, with so many tracks in the offering, there is a lot of throw-away material here, approximately half of the tracks by my estimation. These filler tracks are mostly droning, experimental, uninteresting bridges to the album's better and more memorable moments. What is contained in those memorable moments is an album almost split into thirds - one-third techno, one-third down tempo, one-third dub. In fact, for an album mostly marketed as down tempo the first third of the album - and the first third of great music - is techno masquerading as down tempo. Some of it is dirty ("Sync Mode (Midi Mix)"), some of it is dark and rhythmic (the remix of Kliment's "3db") and some of it is pure beauty where well-known classical is married creatively to some dance-friendly techno (the remix of [De]composer - Etude Simple II "Aleksej" - one of the best on the album.) "Bump Ride," another mid-tempo gem, encapsulates Master Margherita's nice progressive psy flavors. The acoustic guitar and didgeridoo performance from Mr. Pink and Elvis Lobo, however, are the gems of this one. The sum of its awesome work speaks more to Margherita's overall vision for good and groovy music rather his ability to do it alone. Nice collaboration on this one. The invigorating hand-drumming and riotously infectious guitar strings of "Freude," co-produced with Ermetico, ushers in the fine down tempo moments of Afro Dots, with another equally effective moment in the same style cropping up at the end of the album playlist on the heavenly bliss of "Sei Otto (Hibernation Remix)." The dub segment of this album shows Master Margherita saving the best for last. Here the slow-rolling head-bobbing excellence of his dub style offers up gems on "Tyrel Dub (Belgaroth Mix)," an excellent remix of Grouch's "Indifference," a dark yet magical number filled with addictive female spoken word on "Spirit Dub (Ghost Mix)" and a co-produced beauty made with The Positronics on the delicious "Scrumptious (Shorcake Mix)." Afro Dots is a pretty long album and for half of its time it is not particularly interesting. However, with a little bit of careful editing, what is left is half an album of eleven stylistically varied and very well executed musical ideas. It is a gorgeous marriage between some great synthetic beats and some even better live instrumentation. It may be only half a great album, but what a great half that turns out to be. Bandcamp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
franki Posted April 22, 2015 Share Posted April 22, 2015 I don't agree with half the material being "throwaway" at all! I think this is a stunning album. The percussion especially, is incredible. I wouldn't change a thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trancedigital Posted May 2, 2016 Share Posted May 2, 2016 I only liked 4 tracks (which are 3, 4, 5, 6) in this album. Rest is just throwaway material. Disappointed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blubber Posted May 5, 2016 Share Posted May 5, 2016 this is a great grower needed multiple listens to enjoy alot of the tracks, but what sounded like unimaginative boring minimal repetitive material will enfold a great percussive world inside various genres, rhythms, emotions combined with some serious musicians you can be sure to have enough variation through the double album the labels packages me likey also really much btw... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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