Review

Onra & Buddy Sativa

Yhata Bhuta Jazz Combo

All City Dublin • 2013

Thank goodness – it’s not a record full of HipHop-beats, loaded with sketches of jazz from all over the world, yet again. Instead, the collab between Onra and Buddy Sativa seems to be more of a Space Odyssey than a trip to multicultural landscapes of jazz. It’s basically just two friends meeting up between working on their respective projects, in order to fiddle around a bit. What came out is a record that resembles its creative process – it’s free, impulsive and spontaneous. No matter if they whistle jolly tunes on the recorder, bang on bongos, pick the bass or hit the keyboards – nothing sounds as if it was working towards a fixed result. The reason why it still doesn’t sound like recreational chinking is to be found in the psychedelic passages, giving the sound its depth. There is a constant yet subliminal beeping and humming here and there: it’s like heading towards a U.F.O.-paradise while wearing an astronaut’s helmet. When the bass lines and wooden xylophones run up and down the scale, it sounds as if one big and one tiny cartoon-charakter are running up and down endless staircases. Both producers described the sessions for »Yatha Bhuta Jazz Combo« as »therapeutic« – you’ll feel the same when listening to the result.