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Natacha Atlas :: Diaspora
[mca]   review from dimm  


The question I get asked the most about myself and this odd new form of music is , "how did you get into it? did you find out about it cuz yer injun?"

Well boys + girls it happened, as with all things great, with 4 parts luck and a sprinkling of accident, for flavour.

It was 1995, I was in Rochester, NY wasting my parent's money on a useless education, when one of my good friends became editor of our school's weekly magazine. He was young, and naturally had doubts that he could pull the whole thing off, so he surrounded himself with friends for comfort and reassurance. I was hired as copy editor/illustrator/henchman. I did absolutely nothing for $60/week. Another perk was that we periodically received free cds from promoters and record labels. Most of it was crap, but this one, "Diaspora" looked a bit different and as we both listened to it in his car going somewhere to do something doubtless dubious, I commented that I liked it. He thought it was kinda weird. He let me keep it.

It's not surprising that one of the oldest civilizations on the planet would influence such a "human Gaza strip" as Atlas to pioneer a new form of music that was simply ahead of its time. Atlas' mind conjures up sounds that envelope your soul in a cathedral of emotion that you hope to never escape.

Diaspora's rare to find, but if you look hard and are patient, you'll be owning the cd that started it all (at least for me...).



ethnotechno rating: 4 out of 5
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