If you don’t pay too much attention, you could misinterpret Darling Farah’s LP-debut as a collection of half-finished track sketches. A lot of the pieces seem exiguously short, some of the often repetitive compositions seem exceedingly meagre. If you listen to it closely on high volume, though, you realise that what Kamau Baaqi presents with »Body« is intentionally reduced techno from the Berlin-Detroit-Continuum, and its handpicked components develop an incredible effect in their complementary interplay. »Forget It« and »Fortune« for example, are so virtuously arranged that the captivating atmosphere only exists because of a few refined synthie-loops and a queer shuffle of cushioned kickdrums. Baaqis talent to keep up the excitement with subtle changes is of crucial importance – a valuable gift, which also contributes to the bassline-focused »Realised« and the Motor City-reminiscent title track »Body«. Baaqis priority is rather a long-living sound aesthetic instead of club-suitability. This results in a minimal arrangement of his mostly dark and grim album tracks and a maximum of space for their few elements. Consequently, every layer and every effect develops its own life, the sound triggers an incredibly rich impression and guides the hearing towards details and structure. In the end, there is a surprisingly mature debut-LP by a 20-year-old which makes clear that less is damn well more, indeed.
Body
