Review
PRE-ORDER ITEM : Expected January 1st 1970. This item will only be shipped to you on or after the official release date. Please note any orders containing pre-order items won't be shipped until all items are available, so please order this separately to avoid delays. Please remember that release dates are at the mercy of labels, distributors, and pressing plants and will change constantly.
Amazing full-length debut from Sinkane following his single "Runnin'" on our Special Editions sublabel. Comes with bonus mix-cd (while stocks last).
City Slang is well chuffed to announce the signing of NY-based Sinkane, the multi-dimensional music project from Ahmad Gallab. "Mars" is dense with deep, polyrhythmic grooves that refer as much to early 70’s underground soul as it does back to Sudan, Gallab’s home country. On another level, it's a 21st century party record that acknowledges the international musical village in which we all now live. The music of MARS swoons with its kinetic catchiness. But at its core, the music on MARS is Gallab’s way of working through a uniquely American story.
Gallab is known in musician circles for having been the touring multi-instrumentalist for Of Montreal, Caribou, Born Ruffians and Eleanor Friedberger, but he didn’t start there. Gallab's family left Sudan when he was a boy, immigrated to the U.S. and moved all over the country. He went to high school in Kent, Ohio. There, he found his first musical community in the town's unsung but thriving post-hardcore scene The name SINKANE comes from his mishearing of the name Joseph Cinqué, the man who led the Amistad Rebellion. During J. Ivy's verse on Kanye West's "Never Let Me Down,” he says "I want to give us 'Us Free' like Cinqué.” Gallab misheard "Cinqué" as "Sinkane.” Says Gallab, "I always figured it was some monolithic African god like Shaka Zulu or something." He soon figured out the mistake, but the chance mythology hung around, and the name stuck .
In addition to producing MARS, Gallab is a virtual one-man band, playing at least four instruments on every track on MARS. He also enlists a community of top-flight musicians, a screaming guitar solo from George Lewis Jr. of Twin Shadow, as well as contributions from Ira Wolf Tuton (Yeasayer), Oliver Chapoy (Shai Halud), Roberto Lange (Savath & Savathas, Helado Negro), members of Afrobeat band Nomo, and saxophonist/flautist Casey Benjamin a/k/a stutzmcgee.