Solarius Gamma
Nubia Nova Records (41 min)
Florian Doucet is a producer, guitarist and graphic designer formerly of Afro-Colombian party starters La Chiva Gantiva, but his masked alter-ego Ozferti is more than that. According to his manifesto, ‘I am Ozferti. I am an explorer, a beatmaker, a scavenger, a guitarist. I wear the Mask.’
This album is framed as the first of many explorations into the fictitious world of Nubia Nova and the galaxy of Solarius Gamma. As you might expect, sci-fi and fantasy are big influences at work here. Musically, it’s an adventure into all sorts of electronica, suffused with Ethiopian influences courtesy of many guest musicians and singers (including the wonderful azmari Eténèsh Wassié) recorded and produced on-the-ground in Addis Ababa.
The more adventurous this music is, the better it gets. There are really exciting moments when we’re flying wildly to the edges of the universe, but more often than not, it feels as though Doucet is holding back. Even though he brings in everything from dubstep, psytrance, techno, disco, glitch and lo-fi hip-hop, it still comes across as though no boundaries are being pushed. Solarius Gamma is high-concept and suitably cosmic, but it seems to miss the mark more often than it hits.