Afrika Pseudobruitismus – Outer Space Cultures
12.16.15 by Mike Haley
I have a preschooler who brings home a landfill of finger-painted, pom-pom glued, sparkled coated, eye disasters daily, so I’ve become a wee bit numb to overwhelming regurgitation of color stimulation. But still, Afrika Pseudobruitismus‘ cassette on the Virginia label Ingrown still stuck out like a swore ogre thumb in the mailbag. Based on the mustard yellow shell with multi-colored gems on the sticker, and artwork with the subtlety of a Shopkin’s mushroom trip, I had a few ideas what this tape was gonna sound like. None of them good.
But Afrika Pseudobruitismus pulled that old Harlem Globetrotters prank on me. The one when you think someone is gonna get drenched with a bucket of water, but the bucket is actually full of confetti. Classic prank… Instead of being saturated tits to toes with kaleidoscopic pungency and random sugary warfare, the offerings of “Outer Space Cultures” are flexible and spirited. Engaging rhythms and microbe tones swarm. Lucid arpeggios skip like stones on a frozen lake. The cuts provided are whimsical jaunts that are molded, not mashed, occasionally approaching horror soundtrack territory. Shit does get hysterical from time to time over the course of this hour long recording by Erik Hurtado of Spain, but it’s never in nonsense-mode. There is always some semblance of control, even when it sounds like the scene of car accident or an unsanctioned circus. I was wrong to think this was going to be some goofball stroking his zoner boner for the better part of 60 minutes, and I apologize. There really should be some sort of phrase for times like these. Something like, never think you know what a book is going to be about because you looked at the front of the book and got an idea about that book because the book might be totally different. Like that, but concise.
“Outer Space Cultures” is available from Ingrown Records.