Ahnnu “World Music”

02 Sep 2013 — Trey Reis

In his recent interview with Ad Hoc Magazine, Ahnnu’s Leland Jackson described his new album, World Music, as “the next step creatively.” In a way, the statement frames all of his previous albums together, and in doing so, asks the listener to not only look at the distance between the new album and the previous one, but to make comparisons between everything he has ever released.  And the list is growing. With how broad and far-reaching the sample material is on each album, it is no surprise how clear cut the new album title is. World Music. As the boundaries for sampled source material expands, the obscurity of the sample means less. This isn’t finding that drum break on one of the 500 copies of some rare 70s soul 45. No, these sounds were once familiar before being given the Ahnnu razor-cut treatment, but the result strips the context of every sample in a way that can blend material 60 years apart as if it were recorded in the same studio only yesterday.

There are certain albums in music history that people say span decades worth of a genre’s evolution. Ahnnu achieves the same effect, and it’s through tracks clocking in right at two minutes, if not less. Don’t pass this one up. It’s a subliminal summary of what you are missing when you listen to your music.

Listen to “Shame” from World Music below. The album drops on cassette via Leaving Records tomorrow, September 3.