Impiria Consequential

If you had never heard another release on the Barbarity label before this one, you'd be justifiably excited by its fusion of hard techno beats and ambient production with washes of strange Moroccan sounds, many of them grounded in traditional North African music. If you had heard a few other Barbarity releases already, you'd be justifiably disappointed to hear essentially more of the same, with a heavier reliance on Western hardware than is necessary and desirable. More flexible and organic rhythms would serve the traditional elements better, but this was still a creditable East-meets-West loggerhead, mining a territory relatively few others had ventured into as of the early 21st century. The cut featuring Nina Hagen ("Durga Kali Mantra," presented here in an "astral mix" no less) would probably get the most attention from casual listeners. But she was just one of several singers contributing guest vocals to the disc, the others including rai singer Vicky (no last name) and Tunisian vocalist Amina Annabi. There are all manner of unclassifiable echoes of North African music peeking into the mix over the course of the lengthy program, and some of the techno-reverb effects were imaginative-to-amazing. But as with virtually all Barbarity product, there was a sense that the overseers couldn't let go of those anvil beats and put more trust in the (to western ears, anyway) exotic wind-blown vocals, violin, and darbukka to carry more of the weight.