Words by Justin Turford
The Genevan trio AMAMI have been beeping hard on our radar since their brilliant 2019 EP ‘Giant’. Their formidable and instantly recognisable sonic footprint of post-punky dancehall, digital dub and Afro-tropical influences have meant that they have stayed in my record box ever since: absolute weapons at the right time, wrong place.
So, it’s a welcome return to their home at Bongo Joe Records (also based in Geneva) with a hefty new EP (and separate 7” single release) of four new dancefloor destroyers and their respective dub versions including one from the Mad Professor himself.
AMAMI
The massive organ-heavy stepper ‘Wrong Way’ comes as a vocal and dub excursion on the aforementioned 7” although it doesn’t say whether it is the tight, warping digi-dub monster from the acclaimed UK crew Vibronics or Mad Professor’s wildly psychedelic sound desk mix. Regardless, the original’s relentless and pitiless bass line pounds into your chest cavity on both versions, the reverb-heavy vocals, a new wave dancehall holler, the kick drum a call to battle.
The spaced out ‘Eagle’ is a trickier, more experimental groove. Less needy of a dancefloor audience than the other songs, this heavily reverbed tune is playful with breakdown tempos, the washed out vocals are impenetrable yet hugely textural and the soaring synths channel some of the immortal productions of Nassau’s Compass Point Studios sound.
Vibronic’s ‘Eagle Of Heavy Dub’ takes the tempo right down, the vocals even higher in the mix, cloud’s towering high and ecstatic like FSOL’s classic ‘Papua New Guinea’ before transforming into an unforgiving bed of ocean deep fathoms and pummelling bass pressure, the delays and FX pinging in circles.
This stellar EP wraps up with the leftfield Afro-pop of ‘Queen’. Funky as hell but with the same rock solid digital dub bass and freakout vocals, this baby sounds like it was recorded at a live gig such is its freeform energy and tangled delays.
On ‘Queen Dub’, fellow Switzerland-dweller Dubokaj takes it deep into techy-dub territory, adding a superb Detroit-esque wobbly bass, housey hats and claps plus enough dub FX trickery to fit sweetly into the EP’s palette.
AMAMI do it again. Hefty, idiosyncratic and pulsing with attitude and élan, both parts of their ‘Islands EP’ are the business. 9/10
Released on 6 December 2024
BUY HERE! https://amami.bandcamp.com/album/islands-islands-dub-sessions