Suns of Arqa may be the musical project of Michael Wadada which began in 1979, but it’s more of a state of mind than a fixed entity. The roll-call of contributors and collaborators over the years is nothing short of staggering, and now that Michael has declared the collective mission is complete and that he’ll be operating as a solo artist from hereon in, the album ‘Suns of Arqa’ released under the Wadada moniker and featuring remixes and live cuts, stands as both a bookend and a statement heralding a new dawn.
The first ting that hits you is the big, dubby strolling bass. The fact it’s a cover of Dylan’s ‘All Along the watchtower’ is about the third or fourth thing that hits you, after the sinewy uilleann pipes. That there are three versions feels a bit like overkill, though.
Combining an array of exotic instrumentation and reverb of a truly cosmic depth, ‘Shambo Shanka’ flies into a colossal and thoroughly unexpected guitar solo. The Rick the Switch mix of their take on ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ is a magickal, mystical swirl, and ‘All You Need is Dub’ is as spaced-out as you can reasonably get while keeping your mind connected to your body. The sitar-soaked ‘Shri Gashana’ isn’t so much world music as other-worldly music, a far out dubscape which meanders to the outer extremities of inner space.
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It all pales beside the vast sonic expanse of ‘Misro Bilawal’, mixed by Youth & Wadada. Stretching out over a full sixteen minutes, it drones and spirals, twists and turns through deserts of the mind, the colours rasterised to surreal acid-tones.
It’s all about the deep grooves, unhurried, sedate. Meditative – or perhaps medicative – it’s big on the mellow vibes. Open your mind.
Suns of Arqa Online
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