Ex-Centric Sound System

Bassist Yossi Fine had an idea. In his head he heard sounds that fused tribal African music with hip-hop beats, Jamaican dub techniques and dance floor-friendly basslines.

"I always felt that African music has been poorly represented, like drums with a sweet vocal," he said. "The way to get people to listen to it is to put it into a hip-hop rhythm or a reggae rhythm, make people relate to it through music that is now."

"When we play live we kick ass. We rock much more."

When the West-Indian/Israeli musician couldn't find anything like that in the records stores, "I decided to create it." And so Ex-Centric Sound System, whose debut, Electric Voodooland (Loud Records) has just been released, was born.

The true genesis came in 1997 when Fine met multi-instrumentalists Nana Dazdie, leader of the dance and drumming troupe, Susuma, Adevo Savour, and Benjamin ‘Sai' Kouelho, all from Ghana. "They bring all their instruments and knowledge to this," Fine explained. "Myself and the drummer [Israeli Michael Avgil] bring the contemporary grooves."

It's that uncompromising fusion of ideas that makes Ex-Centric Sound System unique, he added. "We don't try and meet in the middle. It's a true conscious meeting - that's the mix."

After much experimentation at Fine's studio in Tel Aviv, and shows around Europe, they recorded Electric Voodooland, whose title strongly echoes Jimi Hendrix's seminal 1968 album, Electric Ladyland. It's a comparison Fine finds perfectly apt, since "he definitely influenced me, and he's as important as any roots musician who came before, and I like the nod to him."

For Fine, the idea of crossing musical boundaries was normal, having played with people as diverse as jazz man Gil Evans, rocker Lou Reed, salsa star Ruben Blades, and hip-hop team Naughty by Nature over the years. With its thick, deep grooves meeting studio sophistication, as on "Chenki" Ex-Centric Sound System is the culmination of all that experience.

"We use kora, balafon, and other African instruments, but we're not always putting them in the pure form, we're putting them through distortion, delay, echo." Fine said. But the feel also comes from the ambience, with the band sampling singers, environmental, and village sounds.

"In America, sometimes they put street noises in the music, and everybody identifies with that," Fine continued. "In Africa music is part of life, so those sounds are in the music, because they're part of the essence."

For all the technological gloss of tracks like "Latest," the heart of the music remains its strong African roots, and the two work well together because, as Dadzie explained, there's nothing new under the sun.

"Everything Yossi is doing I already have in my traditional music, so I'm very cool with it."

The record culminates in the epic "Kokobi,"which is something of a pan-African aural journey, with Ghanaian lyrics, Ethiopian church choirs, and nyabingi and Arab drumming, all working around the same beat.

"Kokobi actually means a message, like sending a message from village to village," noted Dadzie, "so it is really a journey. The lyrics say that when you're going forward, you need to check your back."

Live, the music takes on another dimension. They utilize samples, "but we try not to let them control the show," Fine insisted. " We try to be as hard as we can. There are more dance elements, and the engineer is a big part of the show, he does all the dub stuff."

"When we play live we kick ass," drummer Avgil added. "We rock much more."

And while they've played some major shows, including an appearance at New York's Central Park Summerstage, "We'll play anywhere, in a big stadium, or in your kitchen," laughed Dadzie.

Meanwhile, apart from touring, the band are already hard at work on their next record, Dub Plates, which will incorporate Jamaican rappers like Prezident Brown and Kulcha Knox, along with African singers.

"Jamaican rappers are a little more chant-oriented, they're a little more musical, and their lyrics are more conscious," noted Fine. "Jamaica is like an extension of Africa, it's been very influential on us. It has a lot of raggamuffin flavor. But we're not doing it reggae and ragga. It's very dance-oriented. The Sound System is the melting pot for every kind of music."

This article first appeared on Sonicnet.com

Ex-Centric Sound System

"When we play live we kick ass. We rock much more."

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