£00T (2012)
13 tracks, 46 minutes
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Raised in the US and living with his body in Barcelona and his headspace in the sounds and smells of the world’s every corner, sound artist and producer Filastine creates intelligent music that is as nourishing for the brain as it is for the limbs. £00T is an album based on doom-laden, glitched-out and dirty dubstep, techno and dub, and suffused with all sorts from Javanese gamelan, cumbia, Arabic string orchestras, Thai music, Gnawa and found sounds, with valuable contributions from alternative hip-hop artists Nova (from Indonesia) and ECD (from Japan).
Filastine and his collaborators use their music to get messages across – anti-capitalist, anti-consumerist, environmentalist and pan-globalist themes are all explored through lyrics, music and sound collage. Recording this album across six countries and using samples from even more, the understanding and respect that Filastine has for these many different styles and musicians allows him to patch together a work of rich and inhabited soundscapes that remain entirely uncluttered. The musical cultures that are used together in these pieces complement rather than contradict, strengthening the core message of strength in diversity and power in numbers.
Despite a menacing atmosphere and political bent, however, there is a sense of fun about it all. This is not po-faced music. This album is worldwide rave, after all; you can’t commit to such a party if you’re going to be deathly serious about it all the time. Being able to keep so many influences and important topics afloat in music that has a suitably weighty tone while still making it a proper blast to listen to marks Filastine out as an incredibly talented producer. This is one name we should be hearing about more often – spread the word!
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