Think of One - 'Camping Shaabi'

Think of One is at it with their globe-hopping antics once again. This time around, they return to Morocco to explore the sounds of shaabi, a sort of pop music that is frequently used as wedding reception dance music. Typically, they throw in bucketfuls of other global sounds as well, culminating in something that is provocative and new, but perhaps too much so - listening can be a draining experience.

Think of One is a band (in a very loosely-defined sense of the term) who is always looking for the next boundary in world music, and like a third grader in a game of red rover, runs full-speed at that barrier. Sometimes they crash through in glorious triumph, sometimes they get clotheslined and wind up flat on their backs.

In Camping Shaabi, Think of One takes on shaabi, a genre of world music that is too poppy for the ethnomusicology types and too folky for modern Afrobeat fans. It's party music, basically, often sung at weddings and similar events. In Think of One bandleader David Bovee's hands, shaabi is transformed into something edgy, with punk-rock underpinnings, DJ-style production and a fat handful of alternative global tweaks. Most of the time, it works. When it fails, it's always on the side of excess, and it's hard to fault a musician for trying something new and blazing new trails. Is Camping Shaabi eminently listenable? Absolutely not. Is it a fascinating, if commitment-heavy, journey through cutting-edge global fusion music? Absolutely. Though lacking in reference points and landmarks and therefore bordering on confusion, it's an album that's absolutely worth at least one solid listen.