Global Control / Invisible Invasion

Album review

After a first album which turned the heads of all fans of the world's electronic music scene, Maghreb United, the multifaceted Tunisian Sofyann Ben Youssef has set off for the roads of South East Asia. The second volume in his Ammar 808 project which, as its name indicates, is made using Roland’s legendary drum machine, the TR-808 (used by the pioneers of techno and hip-hop n the 80s). The Brussels-based producer installed himself for three weeks in Chennai, by the gulf of Bengal where he used local talents to make an album exploding with Carnatic music like we have rarely heard before. The album marks a kind of return to sources for Sofyann Ben Youssef who went to study the sitar and the tablas in New Delhi when he was 20 years old. A true concept album, Global Control / Invisible Invasion is an enormous sonic slap in the face with some completely insane tracks including the 6 minute trance song Mahaganapatim featuring incredible bass kicks and chaotic tablas. The first part of the record is sometimes comparable to Baltimore’s booty music, notably in Duryodhana which features the strident sound of the zika, a little traditional Tunisian flute, among unrestrained percussions. For all its flamboyance that will doubtless impress his fellow DJs, Ammar 808 is more accessible towards the end with the excellent Geeta duniki, a sort of electroriental synthpop which proves definitively the pertinence of the Tunisian musician’s vision. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz