Shoeb Ahmad: “Falling Fast”

Shoeb Ahmad is Australia’s answer to Caribou. Well, sorta. Ahmad’s “Falling Fast” is from his new album Watch/Illuminate and its minimal-ambient-pop suits the early part of summer quite nicely. Looped polyrhythms, feather light electric guitar note runs & strums, synth tides and distant (half awake?) vocals call out to those of us flailing about with night terrors. We may be hurtling toward the ground, chased by a cranberry dragon in a terrifying dream world, but Ahmad’s music makes it seem like a day at the beach. Sunlight seeps into our nightmares in this tune as something that might be called hope. Our screams are muffled by the smooth groove. We aren’t scared. We are smiling, taunting the moon and toasting daybreak as we mellow down from the brink.

Watch/Illuminate is a helluva good album too. Produced by Ahmad both at his home in Canberra and during his travels across Oz, NZ, and Asia, the album feels like a trek. When the final song, “The Sleeper,” wraps up after eight plus minutes we are intimately familiar with Shoeb Ahmad’s land and water impressions. Columbian singer Lucrecia Perez and sound artist Lawrence English make guest appearances on the album as well.

Watch/Illuminate is now available from Mystery Plays Records

Written by Jeff Daily