Beat Pharmacy - Earthly Delights

An Afro-house-dub melange on Beat Pharmacy's debut, EARTHLY DELIGHTS. The reverb is set on high, and the grooves are set on stun! "Cape Town" clearly has its roots in Afrobeat, while "Race Track Jockey" stems from Jamaica (with sweeps from Basic Channel-era Berlin). Some of the more downtempo tracks fade from consciousness, however, leaving only the high points and tracks also tend towards being overly long -- contrast the jazzy “Monkey’s Wedding” to the more plodding “New Dawn.” As well, some of the world music influences seem awkward, as on “Afrotech.” “Don’t Bodda Me” avoids this, mostly thanks to Paul St. Hilaire’s vocals, while “Scratching a Surface” takes a more pure Basic Channel ethos with a slower rhythm. So while EARTHLY DELIGHTS manages to have these different international perspectives, he doesn’t quite integrate them all successfully.