Gonjasufi
A Sufi and a Killer

The following are the thoughts and beliefs of a foolish idiot and in no way represent the views and beliefs of this web site. In no way does this web site want to promote or encourage irresponsible behaviour. It is not advisable to try any of the "hints" or "suggestions" implicit in the piece at home or anywhere else in the real world.

Stick this in your car and smoke it!! I realised how much time I have spent in my new car and how many miles I have covered since purchasing it a few months ago when I found myself describing almost all of the music that I have really enjoyed this year as 'great driving music', and, you've guessed it, Gonjasufi's A Sufi and a Killer is no exception, the only difference being that it is absolutely brilliant, my personal album of the year so far, enjoyable outside of a motorised vehicle but best enjoyed thoroughly stoned, behind the wheel of a large automobile in the dark hours of the night when there is an inexplicable amount of cars on the road.

Nothing can make you feel quite so iconically cool as finishing a spliff in the anonymity of a Tesco car park late at night, then starting the engine and slowly rolling out onto the highway, slowly and unhurriedly, whilst the spirit of the 60's and a sound like a more drugged out incarnation of The Doors plays at illegal volumes for that time of night. Nothing that is, except for timing the moment you squeeze between two lorries hogging the road just at the moment when "Sheep" transforms itself from a lilting French pop-styled ballad into an infectious rumba, turning it up to maximum volume to drown out the sound of the wind rushing in through open windows, dancing from one buttock to the next and singing about being a "lion babe" and not having it "any other way".

Okay, maybe I'm playing with the truth a little; it is possible that rolling into a service station forecourt at whore browsing speed with the platinum cool bangra-hop of "Kowboyz&Indians" emanating from every vibrating molecule of your jet black passion wagon might be cooler, like John Travolta driving a convertible on heroin kind of cool. Or even simply shouting "Biggie Biggie" at the occasional night time pedestrian as the bass dive in "Advice" rattles your larynx, surprising those late night dog-walkers and 24 hour supermarket shoppers and probably making them think that you are possibly the coolest son of a bitch that they have ever seen, and no doubt enjoying the way that the multitude of sonic experiments are encroaching on their otherwise dull and peaceful night.

Gonjasufi's horse-rattle of a voice is deceptively versatile and will no doubt thrill you whether he is barking or crooning or whatever else. It is his persistent voice that ties a dramatic amount of styles together into a unified whole and the record shifts between stops with all the ease of a well oiled machine full of parts from all over the world. This is world music, performed by a man that you can believe has wandered the world, be it desert or ice, with no shoes on his feet.

I can't think of a single moment from this album that I would not relish the thought of turning up very loud, blazing up to, winding the car windows down and driving somewhere where people will damned well take notice of my impeccable, dangerously cool musical tastes. The sheer number of ways in which A Sufi and a Killer is cool, the sheer number of styles, among them rock, disco, hip-hop, garage, bangra and flamenco, in which it manages to be effortlessly cool within is bewildering. Add to that a production ethic that always sounds home made whilst consistently challenging the open-mindedness of your speaker system and the fact that most of this album will probably be pillaged by an ageing Quentin Tarantino in years to come in an attempt to soundtrack a movie or two and you have a cocktail for perhaps the coolest record that this decade will see. And if you have an aversion to anything which is hailed as cool or trendy then you need to get out on the roads with a head full of THC more often and see just what you're missing out on. Few things in life feel as good as feeling like you're the absolute shit, and if nothing else, Gonjasufi makes me feel just like that.

Overall: A+