Relatively fresh off the release of A Sufi and a Killer back in March of last year, and presumably when he wasn’t busy teaching enthusiastic female pupils the art of faithfully performing the downward-facing dog, the intimately psychedelic and soulful Gonjasufi a.k.a. Sumach Ecks has apparently been putting in due time working on his newest “mini album” MU.ZZ.LE, due out January 24 on Warp. An announcement on the Warp website warns potential listeners not to mistake the album’s length (just under 30 minutes) for lack of depth: “It’s a lonely journey that will take you through the innermost thoughts of Gonjasufi’s darkest hours. He recorded and mixed it on his own in his home studio surrounded by his family and the stark contrast of the Mohave [sic] desert. The end product is his outlet and realization for who he is, a way for him to feel comfortable in his own skin again.”
A lonely journey indeed. While A Sufi and a Killer featured contributions from Flying Lotus, The Gaslamp Killer and Mainframe, this album had Gonjasufi taking over the whole of the production duties. This could indicate a rather noticeable change in sound and style, perhaps explaining the release of a “mini” and not a “maxi” album — a testing the waters sort of scenario similar to the purpose of some EPs. Speaking of which, there really should be some kind of distinct, shorthand term for these mini albums, which seem (from my perspective or my imagination) to be increasingly common, and which are apparently destined to forever occupy the vague purgatory in-between the LP and the EP.
…What? You didn’t expect me to think of one, did you?
MU.ZZ.LE tracklisting:
01. White Picket Fence
02. Feedin’ Birds
03. Nikels and Dimes
04. Rubberband
05. Venom
06. Timeout
07. Skin
08. The Blame
09. Blaksuit
10. Sniffin’
• Gonjasufi: http://www.sufisays.com
• Warp: http://warp.net
