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Recording:
  Inheritance
 
 
Artist:
  Omar Ahmad
 
 
Label:
  AKP Recordings
 
 
Release Date:
  7.July.2023  
 
Reviewed by:
  PostLibyan  
         
 
Rating:
   
         
 
Review:
 

Omar Ahmad is Palestinian New Yorker who plays cello and guitar, programs synths, DJs, and adds sings. Inheritance is his debut record, and he must be exhausted after doing all of that stuff himself. But this is a worthwhile release.

This is nice, old school, electronic ambient. Samples waver in and out of keyboard riffs and random drones. There is a good bit of echo to most things, which gives the music a nice, fuzzed out, relaxed approach. It reminds me of late 90s releases by Ultramarine, or the early 2000s work of Worriedaboutsatan. Mr. Ahmad has created a nice record along those lines.

The record starts, appropriately, with a sample of a door opening, then piano and cello wander over a sample of people talking. The piano wanders over some drones for a while, as drones build and layer. At about the two minute mark, drums and guitar come in and the song rocks, slightly and then a minute later it swells with a throbbing but subdued rave beat. It's a fascinating mix of sounds, but Ahmad makes it all work. The song is called A Little Time for Me, and He packs a lot into the five minutes of this tune, but it is the introduction to the record, a kind of overture of what is to follow.

Gesso starts off with Ahmad talking with a small child and a woman in what I presume is Arabic. Synths drone and waver in and out of a sample of flowing water, driving the song along.

On Sham Oasis some kind of middle eastern sounding string instrument clatters over synths that whoosh as they escape from an old Star Trek episode. The spacey sounds and the Middle Eastern sounds layer nicely, and this one really reminds me of Ultramarine and the whole late 1990s Astralwerks scene. It builds to a nice beat-filled climax, with hand drums and spacey synths.

Lapses has a really nice beat, and just grooves along lightly with a wonderful bass riff. On Losing a Friend the beat is a stuttering loop or of small sounds, very Boards of Canada-like. Except that Ahmad makes is sound disconcerting by very aggressively cross-fading, making the whole song appear to shudder and twist. I suppose is the point, given the title, a sort of music feeling of groundlessness.

Usra brings back that 1990s loping beat. On Descended from a Wanaque Tree (Borrowed Memory) Ahmad layers lots of synths and a kind of tinkling sound, which is pretty cool.

And finally the record ends with Cygnet Song, which is a beautiful combination of varous guitar parts. This is really lovely, just acoustic guitar in simple layers, and reminds me of Bibio.

So this is pretty interesting stuff. Ahmad has a lot of good musical ideas, and he has the skill to carry them out. I like the eclectic nature of this music, the various instruments and the electro bits fusing together.

 
         
 
Related Links:
 

https://omarahmadmusic.com/
https://themusicofomar.bandcamp.com/

 
         

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