1. Summerhills (7:52)
2. The Green Cloud (7:01)
3. Seven Horizons (9:22)
4. Feelings Per Room (feat. Jasmin Pour) (7:27)
5. Fusedub (5:17)
6. Sunchild (8:00)
7. Metapop (After Morning Mix) (7:19)
8. Liquid Beach (8:00)
9. Lovin’ Music (feat. George Din) (8:30)
10. Metapop (feat. Dea Li) (3:40)
What’s in a name? Well, when you call your group the Saafi Brothers and dub your debut album “Mystic Cigarettes” (complete with illegal ciggies as a major ingredient in the cover art), you don’t exactly leave much to the listener’s imagination. But “Mystic Cigarettes” wasn’t a smokers delight only; however un-altered your state is, that album is a blinder from start to finish, an exceptionally well-crafted journey through dubbed-out, subtle atmospherics and hypnotic trance-scapes (he said, pompously). Never listened to it while “under the influence” but it’s undoubtedly ace whatever the time, place or mood – and that’s no minor accomplishment.
“Mystic Cigarettes” was released in 1997, and it took three years before we were finally graced with the follow-up “Midnights Children”. In the meantime, however, Alex Azary “did a Darren Emerson” (well, sort of), and suddenly, there were only two Saafi Brothers left: Gabriel Le Mar and Michael Kohlbecker. As any self-respecting psytrance/-chill fan knows, these two are some rather prolific guys, with an overwhelming amount of releases in a multitude of incarnations, something which has (perhaps inevitably) led to sporadic lapses in quality control and lack of progression. That’s particularly the case with Kohlbecker, whose solo work has become so samey that you know what his records will sound like before you hear them. For example, his recent Fünf D and Magnat albums ain’t a patch on some of his earlier efforts in guises such as Eternal Basement, Taklamakan or S.M.I.L.E. (I haven’t looked into his Masun album yet, though, but then again, apparently nobody else has either – it was released only to sink like a rock, for some reason). Mr. Le Mar is more consistent in this respect, and his last solo album “Hear and Now” not only comprises some of his best work, but is also his most successful attempt to date to fuse elements of dub, world music, trance and techno in a coherent whole. But although their individual styles are quite dissimilar (Le Mar’s approach is a lot broader and more varied than Kohlbecker’s), they’ve worked together in several projects that has yielded excellent results. For example, their Montauk P album on Blue Room Released from 1997 was a truly visionary piece of work: an almost paralyzingly dark and claustrophobic masterpiece that never got the attention it deserved. Saafi Brothers is on the lighter side of the emotional spectrum, and at its best, this project has combined Le Mar’s love of hypnotic dub with Kohlbeckers trancy techno dynamics to brilliant effect. The “Midnights Children” album was a minor disappointment, though; although it contained some excellent music, it was in parts to noodly and lightweight for my liking, and some of the tracks sounded like outtakes that didn’t make it to “Mystic Cigarettes”.
Another three years have passed since then, and since their previous label Blue Room Released has gone up in smoke (heh heh), this album is issued on the duo’s own label Saafi Records, whose purpose seems a bit unclear at this point (will it ever release anything else than SB records?). I was quite unsure how relevant this project would be six years after they first appeared on the scene, and frankly, this is a very unconvincing record and undoubtedly the weakest SB release so far. The mood is light, summery and overall very pleasant and undemanding, sadly lacking the depth, finesse and vitality of their best tracks. At its worst, “Liquid Beach” resembles the tedious wallpaper music to be found on dozens of chill out compilations – superficial coffee table tunes with no substance or musical merit. Traces of the Saafi magic of old can be found in tracks such as “Seven Horizons” and “Sunchild”, but these still sound like they should have been released a couple of years before “Mystic Cigarettes”, not after, as they’re basically very dub-techno-by-numbers tunes with few interesting twists. It must also be added how little they’ve progressed in six years – the differences from the first Saafi album are marginal production-wise (we’re talking minute fine-tuning here), and when the music is criminally short in the ideas department too, this record simply falls flat. And I still haven’t mentioned the ill-advised cheesy vocals that turn up every now and then without any musical justification whatsoever (the closing “Metapop” is particularly horrible). I was all set to report that this was the album that once again placed the Brothers at the top of their league, but the truth is that this is a very lackluster effort that only contributes to ruining their reputation. It would be a good idea for the two gentlemen involved to reinvent themselves a little and come up with some new ideas soon – otherwise they’ll end up as irrelevant has-beens in no time. And where I previously assumed that Alex Azary played a marginal role in the creation of “Mystic Cigarettes”, it now dawns on me that his input must have been quite considerable. Either way, I’ve long been prepared to see someone come up with a lightweight pop version of “Mystic Cigarettes” (after all, there are plenty of Shpongle clones out there), but I never thought that the Saafi Brothers themselves would be responsible for it. Avoid.
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