Google "African techno." What do you see? Not a helluva lot. There's one site that touches on Konono NÂș 1's Congotronics, and that's about it. Aside from Warp Records IDM artist Mira Calix (a white South African woman), I know of only one other African-born electronic musicianâAlan Abrahams (AKA Portable and Bodycode).
Abrahams grew up in Cape Town, South Africa, and became interested in electronic music through Chicago house tracks heard at illegal parties. Hoping to escape the geographic isolation of South Africa, Abrahams migrated to London in 1996. His recording career took off in the early 2000s, and he started his own SĂŒd Electronic imprint in 2002. (Abrahams is now based in Lisbon, Portugal, whose sunny climate and friendly atmosphere, he claims, have made his music sound more optimistic.)
As Portable, Abrahams has established himself as one of electronic music's most fascinating artists. His unique slant on minimal techno has found homes on such esteemed labels as ~scape, Context, and Background. What distinguishes Portable's output from other laptop illuminati is the way he incorporates traditional African percussive elements and rhythms, as well as equatorial atmosphere, into techno's rigid 4/4 grid. Abrahams winningly blends the oddly cerebral and the slyly sensual in his tracks, which are instantly identifiable, a major feat in this overcrowded field.
"The sounds that I synthesize incorporate rhythms that are in tune with a general sense of well-being," Abrahams says. He calls his music "a celldance as a form of communication. And the most primal communion we have is a sexual one, with dancing a precursor to that."
Abrahams's new album as Bodycode, The Conservation of Electric Charge (on Ghostly International subsidiary Spectral Sound), is engineered with a keener affinity for the dance floor, boasting punchier percussion, more insistent polyrhythms, irresistible vocal hooks, and outright singing (by Abrahams) in the Kraftwerkian "I, Data."
Abrahams says Conservation is "a spinoff from the Portable project. Portable was born from an aesthetic to compose dance-styled music that you could listen to at home, and Bodycode is music to make you feel at home while you dance. They are reflections of each other."
Despite (or maybe because of) this greater emphasis on making people move, Bodycode's music retains the deeply ritualistic, hypnotic quality that marks Portable's best work. There's no cheese clogging the eight-track disc's grooves; Abrahams has oiled this dancing machine with modern technology's finest lubricants, so that every element maximally stimulates your senses. You'll feel it profoundlyâno matter where in the world you dwell.
The year's not even half over, but it's safe to say The Conservation of Electric Charge will be among 2006's best techno releases, up there with Ricardo Villalobos's Achso and Modern Deep Left Quartet's Babyfoot.
Bodycode plays with Let's Go Outside, Electrosect, Greg Skidmore Tues May 30 at Baltic Room, 1207 E Pine St, 625-4444, 9 pmâ2 am, $12, 21+.
Beat Happenings
THURSDAY MAY 25
EAR VENOM, SON OF ROSE
Seattle duo Ear Venom (Brian and Garek) use homemade and altered instruments to create work that falls into the unpopular but fulfilling style we'll call cosmic mindfuck, with recessive illbient dub and psych-rock genes. On their Ear Venom Breeds Lava CD-R, the three tracks sprawl over 44 minutes, allowing the musicians ample time to transport your mind to extraordinary realms that eradicate thoughts about the Bush regime's harsh realities (everyone could use respite from the chronic horror). In "The Gorgosaurus Is a Perfect Vessel," a meditative guitar spangles amid engine-room hurly-burly, submarine-flooding slooshes, and musique-concrĂšte creakings, rendering it much more poignant. Ear Venom move with both cagey deliberation and daring unpredictability. Rendezvous (presented by Wall of Sound), 2322 Second Ave, 441-5823, 10:30 pmâ1 am, $6, 21+.
SUNDAY MAY 28
JAMIE LIDELL
Britain's greatest contribution to 21st-century soul music plays Sasquatch! Make it a priority to see this suave mofo do his unique thing. Live, Lidell is a shape-shifting dynamo of improvisational vocal acrobatics and freaky, intuitive synth explorations. To paraphrase the late comedian Flip Wilson, "Honey, he's got rhythms you haven't even heard yet." Gorge Amphitheatre (Wookie Stage), www.sasquatchfestival.com, noonâ1 pm, $55, all ages.
TUESDAY MAY 30
CLUE TO KALO
On his two albums for MushâCome Here When You Sleepwalk (2003) and One Way, It's Every Way (2005)âClue to Kalo (AKA Australian singer-laptopper Mark Mitchell) often sounds like what soft-psych bands the Zombies or Left Banke would be doing if they started in this decade rather than in the '60s. CTK's dreamy indietronica songs emphasize gossamer synth murmurs, winsome harmonium, jangly guitars, and wispy vocals, instilling soothing tingles with each bar. With Br. Danielson, the Lonely Forest. Chop Suey, 1325 E Madison St, 324-8000, 8 pmâ2 am, $8, all ages.
WEDNESDAY MAY 31
LE VIDE
This is the penultimate Le Vide (June 28 will be the finale). One of Seattle's foremost experimental-music showcases features compelling sci-fi-soundtrack propagators the Noisettes, NovaHead vs. ChickenTron, and host DJ Wm. F. Buckley Jr. Re-bar, 1114 Howell St, 9 pmâ2 am, $3, 21+.
