Fresh Touch - Ethiopian

The genesis of Fresh Touch’s ‘The Ethiopian’ lies in a trip to the cities of Addis Ababa and Harar by the band’s Richard Russell and Rodiah McDonald to record with both local and Western musicians. Both Russell and McDonald are on a roll with their production CV’s including Gil Scott-Heron and The xx of late, with McDonald also working as the head honcho at Russell’s own XL studios.

Such musical trips to Africa are nothing new and have acquired a certain cultural currency, particularly in light of Damon Albarn’s Mali music endeavours. Whether this is simply a re-treading of colonial impulses is open to debate but either way, this has resulted in a considerable amount of dubious welding of anything resembling an African sound to more familiar Western traditions.

‘Harar Rhythm’, the opening track on this four-track EP, is the best attempt at refuting this tendency, building from a series of sampled vocal loops into a loping, quietly menacing bass synth driven beast. The mélange of styles compliment each other rather well on this loping production with the synths weaving their way in and out of the percussion; however, after this promising opening, things take a turn for the tepid with the remaining three tracks which apply the same formula as the opener, albeit with considerably less success. Clocking in at a mere fifteen minutes, ‘The Ethiopian’ doesn’t outstay its welcome which, beyond the opening track, is probably for the best.