Jantra – Synthesized Sudan (Album Review)

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It’s not often that one gets the chance to review what is claimed to be a new and unique style of music. Still, it is one afforded by the latest release from New York record label Ostinato Records, Synthesised Sudan – Astro-Nubian Electronic Jaglara Sounds From The Fashaga Underground, by Jantra.

Labelled by many as Jagala, this compulsive dance music is being fashioned far from urban settings in the disputed rural area of Fashaga, near the border of Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea, with its leading proponent and innovator being an enigmatic musician going by the name of Jantra, which translates as “craziness”, a fitting epithet both for his character and the music he produces.

In an all too familiar way, his introduction to creating music was born as much through economic necessity as any altruistic leaning. Family mouths needed feeding, and, like so many others across Africa, he took up keyboard/synthesiser, reshaping and transforming traditional music through his cosmically creative electronic sounds. The story goes that he travelled to what was ancient Nubia, where he gained further inspiration from gazing at the infinite cosmos of the night sky, thus the reference within the album’s sub-title.

Beginning with small street parties in Gederif, his hometown near the Sudan-Ethiopia border, his sounds began attracting great attention amongst many of the less affluent members of Sudanese society, albeit within a very small select circle for whom he graced their humble gatherings and raves.

His signature instrument is a blue Yamaha which has been “customised” by the keyboard mechanics in Omdurman market near Khartoum. This, alongside one or two further tweaks of his own, means that it has been adapted to manage Sudanese melodies and rhythms better. Add to this his USB stick containing a library of finely tuned sounds, and you have the complete Jantra package.

Having never recorded nor released an album before, this record brings Jantra’s music, previously only heard by those present at a gathering, to a broader Sudanese audience and the worldwide stage.

However, Jantra has no songs; he acts as a live producer and DJ, freestyling his melodies for hours on end. To capture and attempt to make some sense of this in terms of a recording suitable for commercial release, Ostinato Records came up with a novel approach which they term “a hybrid reissue contemporary album.” This involved taking excerpts from cassettes and digital recordings that Jantra had made in his early days. Then their team followed him to the parties, weddings and private gatherings and, having extracted individual melodies, sounds, patterns and MIDI data from his ‘performances’, these were then merged with the older recordings and subsequently edited into the ten individual dance tracks presented on the album.

Credits for the release are minimal – Synth maestro Ahmed Mohamed Yaqoup Eltom AKA Jantra, Produced and arranged by Vik Sohonie & Janto Koité, Recording and data extraction by Janto Koité, who also mixed.

The 26-second opening snippet, DarGoog Intro, is a tasty little amuse-bouche which gives a fair, if brief, indication of what is to follow. The first track proper, Gadima, with its chunky electro synth key sounds and African drum beats, ramps up the tempo and volume in a piece that is relentlessly addictive, reminiscent, towards the end, of some of the Keith Emerson-produced sounds within Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

The longest track here, Makhafi, opens with celestial, swirling synth strings which give way to solo synth and Afro beats. Echoey and cosmic break-downs and changes of focus are frequent, which, rather than being disquieting, actually seem to work in maintaining the interest. The synthesised percussion and repetitive synth patterns gather pace before fading, running out of steam, perhaps like the dancing throngs for whom he performs. Shades of Tangerine Dream might be a touchstone here.

More ethereal sounds herald Ozali. Reminiscent of the French group Atoll, this empyrean opening soon gives way to up-tempo percussion and dynamic synth patterns. Once again, the mood generated is spacey, and the track certainly takes off; it is an exhausting listen, ideal dance music if you have the energy.

Shabal again features 40 seconds worth of magisterial ELP-sounding synth before a reggae-like rhythm underscores more diaphanous synth sounds with an addictive melody line and electronic clapping. To suggest this is redolent of a hypothetical Sly & Robbie meet The Tornadoes mash-up is possibly not too far-fetched.

Another short appetiser, Jaglara Interlude, acts as an introduction to the second side of the vinyl release, before the quiet, rippling effects of Homoom, with its echoes of Aqua by Edgar Froese, give way to an incredible mélange of claps and beats which sit behind the somewhat bizarre reverberations of electronic sounds which emulate pipes and percussion. Imagine the relentless energy and intensity of Face The West or Skerryvore rendered electronically.

A Celtic feel is also very much apparent on Khadija. A dramatic opening bass synth chord belies the light, airy fare which follows. The celestial female vocal sample is completely out there in the ether somewhere, with more electronic clapping, presumably encouraging the audience as we drift into an electric guitar-sounding break before the earlier theme is re-introduced and the slow-down to fade motif occurs once again.

The penultimate cut, Feej, initially has more of an oriental sound and feel, adding more variety to the album as a whole, whilst the closing track, Jaborouna Jabor, starts in a quieter and reflective mood, but soon gives way again to propulsive beats and soaring synth, with the latter generally melodic in approach, rather than squiggles or bleeps. With numerous layers of sound, there is a great deal going on here in this extremely well-constructed piece, with, as previously, a complete break-down in terms of tempo, atmosphere and tone mid-way through, with some tremendous guitar chords, percussive beats and a trace of treated vocalisations before returning to the opening motif and patterns. Involuntary body movements are difficult to suppress here, such is the infective nature of the rhythms.

The canon of African electronic music is significantly enhanced by the release of Synthesised Sudan – Astro-Nubian Electronic Jaglara Sounds From The Fashaga Underground by Jantra. Full marks to Ostinato Records for bringing such joyful, uplifting new dance music to our ears.

The release is also available on very limited cyan-coloured vinyl and regular 180g black vinyl.

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