Khadim

This EP is the perfect completing of the circle of Berliner Mark Ernestus’s work with the Senegalese supergroup that formerly formed Jeri-Jeri, later Ndagga Rhythm Force. Where most of his productions are technically brilliant but always put the musicians and their instruments front and centre, this one joins the gloriously complex rhythms back to the monumental techno-dub of his work as Basic Channel, Rhythm & Sound and dozens of other aliases. The way the West African rhythmic cubism melds with the spatial manipulation of the dub technique is nothing short of mind-blowing.

In proper techno DJ fashion, Berlin’s Mark Ernestus has preferred to hide behind near-anonymous project names for decades, from the earliest Basic Channel 12”s on through his tectonic Rhythm & Sound project with Moritz von Oswald. Ernestus’s name rests at the top of the third Ndagga Rhythm Force record, his exploration of the collision between dub techno and Senegal mbalax, but he naturally prefers a cover visual of rusted metal and old tires with a photo collage of his collaborators on the back, the man himself nowhere to be seen. But the credit “everything else by Mark Ernestus” speaks volumes. He triggers subtle Prophet synth lines and makes the drums hit in an uncanny manner. Seven years have passed since the last Ndagga album and its four tracks are a distillation of these huge mbalax drums and their vibrations, a whittling and reduction that breaks it down to a thunderous essence. The rhythms of “Dieuw Bakhul” feel both concussive and subliminal, as if designed to make your smooth muscle layer move. The 14-minute title track is a highlight for Seck’s aching vocals, a heartfelt plaint delivered atop a rumbling rockslide.