Ammoncontact ~ One In An Infinity Of Ways
LA-based duo Ammoncontact
are schooldays friends Carlos Niño and Fabian Ammon. One In An Infinity
Of Ways is their successor to last year’s longplayer Sounds Like Everything.
“Dreamy” begins things trippy, bordering on wholesale psychedelic.
It’s a tasty pease pottage whose ingredients include lolling-tongued
synths, a synthetic rhythm capable of slicing cheese at a 100 yards, out of
tune flutes and acoustic guitar. “Healing Vibrations" ratches up
the tempo but lowers the ante by reducing the number of elements mingling
with each other to produce a big, bumbling track that comes out like a blurred
minimalism. “Keepintime” starts with the almost too familiar whoops
and shouts of audience reaction, cuts to a catchy little bass figure that
repeats just the right number of times, then suddenly the whole thing morphs
into a pensive, spacious electro number blessed with a mouthwateringly gorgeous
Fender Rhodes solo. Blink and you’d think you’d just heard three
different tracks, except that the whole thing makes delicious, mesmerising
sense. One In An Infinity Of Ways is so messy, so rich and tactile you feel
like you could pick it up and muss it around. It’s upscale, upbeat,
fun music cut with a generous serving of leftfield unpredictability. Ammoncontact
demonstrate they know light and shade as well as bustle and space. Think the
glad vibes of Hu Vibrational, the gritty textures of Clouddead and the insistent,
fragmented grooves of Prefuse 73. But that won’t be enough. Just think
Ammoncontact. Don’t know what the headnodders will make of this, but
who cares? This is instrumental hiphop for headtrippers and bootyshakers everywhere.
One In An Infinity Of Ways ends with the only vocal cut of the album, Lil
Sci says: “So many ways I could have approached this song, I chose this
one... just go where my heart points and bring substance...” Amen.
Colin Buttimer
November 2004
Published by Grooves
magazine