TRACKLIST

1. Masenqo  2. Cha Cha (YouYube)  3. Addis Black Widow  4. Mulatu  5. Blue Nile (YouYube)  6. Esketa Dance  7. Chik Chikka  8. Live From The Tigre Lounge  9. Chinese New Year 10. Phantom Of The Panther 11. Dewel 12. Fire In The Zoo 13. An Epic Story 14. Anglo Ethio Suite

REVIEW
The third in Strut Records' Inspiration Information collaborative series pairs Mulatu Astatke, 66-year-old father of Ethio-jazz, with London-based astral funk collective the Heliocentrics. The collaboration began with an appearance at London club Cargo in 2008, and has finally borne recorded fruit in the form of an intriguing album that's equal parts sweaty funk and blissfully meditative jams.
Astatke has come to be appreciated outside specialist circles in recent years. His music featured heavily in Jim Jarmusch's 2005 film Broken Flowers, and before that, in 1998, an entire edition of the Ethiopiques album series was devoted to his work. His sound intertwines funk and jazz elements with traditional Ethiopian folk melodies and echoes of Coptic Church music. Astatke's compositions frequently combine his own vibraphone and conga playing with the distinctive sound of the lyre-like krar, which works with five tones instead of the seven-note scale typical of western music. These disparate elements combine to create a heady blend that feels both sacred and profane.
That paradoxical effect holds sway here, with the Heliocentrics adding a glitchy sheen. Their most noticeable contribution at first is the sheer power of the drumming, which on sleazy jam Addis Black Widow and the funky sax-led Fire in the Zoo have an almost breakbeat-like heaviness. Elsewhere, however, they conspire with Astatke to far subtler effect. The electronic effects flecked between the meandering bass, spiralling strings and washint (an Ethiopian flute) passages on An Epic Story are no less compelling for being down in the mix.
There are times when the partnership falters. Blue Nile dips its toes into forgettable downtempo territory, and the closing ten-minute sprawl of Anglo Ethio Suite doesn't build much beyond a promising opening. The good outweighs the bad, however, especially on the woozy stagger of Chik Chikka and the Alice Coltrane-style oddness of Phantom of the Panther. Best of all is Live From Tigre Lounge, where metallic beats combine with a sinister organ and distant howled vocals above a bassline that sounds like its wandered in from an early-1990s hardcore record. At times such as these this project makes perfect, unexpected sense.
Source: BBC

SPOILER!

CODE Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009 EAC extraction logfile from 8. June 2009, 10:17 Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics / Inspiration Information Used drive  : PIONEER DVD-RW  DVR-216  Adapter: 1  ID: 0 Read mode              : Secure Utilize accurate stream : Yes Defeat audio cache      : Yes Make use of C2 pointers : No Read offset correction                      : 96 Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out          : No Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes Delete leading and trailing silent blocks  : No Null samples used in CRC calculations      : Yes Used interface                              : Installed external ASPI interface Gap handling                                : Appended to previous track Used output format              : User Defined Encoder Selected bitrate                : 128 kBit/s Quality                        : High Add ID3 tag                    : No Command line compressor        : C:\Programmi\FLAC\flac.exe Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "GENRE=%m" -T "COMMENT=EAC FLAC -8" %s TOC of the extracted CD     Track |  Start  |  Length  | Start sector | End sector     ---------------------------------------------------------         1  |  0:00.00 |  6:23.64 |        0    |    28788          2  |  6:23.64 |  4:35.28 |    28789    |    49441          3  | 10:59.17 |  3:38.74 |    49442    |    65865          4  | 14:38.16 |  3:14.74 |    65866    |    80489          5  | 17:53.15 |  3:12.43 |    80490    |    94932          6  | 21:05.58 |  4:09.23 |    94933    |  113630          7  | 25:15.06 |  5:04.65 |    113631    |  136495          8  | 30:19.71 |  2:54.04 |    136496    |  149549          9  | 33:14.00 |  3:46.30 |    149550    |  166529        10  | 37:00.30 |  2:21.10 |    166530    |  177114        11  | 39:21.40 |  5:49.18 |    177115    |  203307        12  | 45:10.58 |  3:36.25 |    203308    |  219532        13  | 48:47.08 |  5:01.10 |    219533    |  242117        14  | 53:48.18 |  9:40.60 |    242118    |  285677  Track  1     Filename D:\CDRip\Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics - Inspiration Information (2009) [FLAC]\01 - Masenqo.wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:02.00     Peak level 100.0 %     Track quality 99.9 %     Test CRC 5359FF85     Copy CRC 5359FF85     Track not present in AccurateRip database     Copy OK Track  2     Filename D:\CDRip\Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics - Inspiration Information (2009) [FLAC]\02 - Cha Cha.wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:02.00     Peak level 99.4 %     Track quality 100.0 %     Test CRC 52C2F54D     Copy CRC 52C2F54D     Track not present in AccurateRip database     Copy OK Track  3     Filename D:\CDRip\Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics - Inspiration Information (2009) [FLAC]\03 - Addis Black Widow.wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:02.00     Peak level 100.0 %     Track quality 100.0 %     Test CRC 703BB00D     Copy CRC 703BB00D     Track not present in AccurateRip database     Copy OK Track  4     Filename D:\CDRip\Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics - Inspiration Information (2009) [FLAC]\04 - Mulatu.wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:02.00     Peak level 100.0 %     Track quality 100.0 %     Test CRC 90C1530B     Copy CRC 90C1530B     Track not present in AccurateRip database     Copy OK Track  5     Filename D:\CDRip\Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics - Inspiration Information (2009) [FLAC]\05 - Blue Nile.wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:02.00     Peak level 100.0 %     Track quality 99.9 %     Test CRC CC42B413     Copy CRC CC42B413     Track not present in AccurateRip database     Copy OK Track  6     Filename D:\CDRip\Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics - Inspiration Information (2009) [FLAC]\06 - Esketa Dance.wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:02.00     Peak level 100.0 %     Track quality 100.0 %     Test CRC 3648191C     Copy CRC 3648191C     Track not present in AccurateRip database     Copy OK Track  7     Filename D:\CDRip\Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics - Inspiration Information (2009) [FLAC]\07 - Chik Chikka.wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:02.00     Peak level 100.0 %     Track quality 100.0 %     Test CRC B654E2B7     Copy CRC B654E2B7     Track not present in AccurateRip database     Copy OK Track  8     Filename D:\CDRip\Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics - Inspiration Information (2009) [FLAC]\08 - Live From Tigre Lounge.wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:02.00     Peak level 100.0 %     Track quality 100.0 %     Test CRC 0C98A78E     Copy CRC 0C98A78E     Track not present in AccurateRip database     Copy OK Track  9     Filename D:\CDRip\Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics - Inspiration Information (2009) [FLAC]\09 - Chinese New Year.wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:02.00     Peak level 100.0 %     Track quality 100.0 %     Test CRC AADCF20D     Copy CRC AADCF20D     Track not present in AccurateRip database     Copy OK Track 10     Filename D:\CDRip\Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics - Inspiration Information (2009) [FLAC]\10 - Phantom of the Panther.wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:02.00     Peak level 100.0 %     Track quality 99.9 %     Test CRC B75BB48C     Copy CRC B75BB48C     Track not present in AccurateRip database     Copy OK Track 11     Filename D:\CDRip\Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics - Inspiration Information (2009) [FLAC]\11 - Dewel.wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:02.00     Peak level 100.0 %     Track quality 100.0 %     Test CRC 76D0B8B7     Copy CRC 76D0B8B7     Track not present in AccurateRip database     Copy OK Track 12     Filename D:\CDRip\Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics - Inspiration Information (2009) [FLAC]\12 - Fire in the Zoo.wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:02.00     Peak level 100.0 %     Track quality 100.0 %     Test CRC CB0A484E     Copy CRC CB0A484E     Track not present in AccurateRip database     Copy OK Track 13     Filename D:\CDRip\Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics - Inspiration Information (2009) [FLAC]\13 - An Epic Story.wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:02.00     Peak level 100.0 %     Track quality 100.0 %     Test CRC 50E7CEDA     Copy CRC 50E7CEDA     Track not present in AccurateRip database     Copy OK Track 14     Filename D:\CDRip\Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics - Inspiration Information (2009) [FLAC]\14 - Anglo Ethio Suite.wav     Pre-gap length  0:00:02.00     Peak level 100.0 %     Track quality 99.9 %     Test CRC 2E123CC9     Copy CRC 2E123CC9     Track not present in AccurateRip database     Copy OK None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database No errors occurred End of status report

Masterpiece! Enjoy it :hi: