Oka – elements (CD)

It was a cold and windy Sunday afternoon. I was at Renaissance Montréal, looking at their huge second hand CD section. I`m a curious person. I like to experiment, discover unusual, obscure, interesting sounds. When I feel like buying music (and I don`t know what to purchase), that`s when I listen to my inner voice, my gut feeling. Upon seeing this CD my, spider sense was tingling. I don`t know why but I had to buy it. The cover and the back cover was normal i.e. ordinary, nothing to catch my attention. That afternoon my gut feeling told me two things: I gotta stop eating at McCrap and I had to buy it, so I did. I go home, pour myself a big glass of milk (I`m getting old, that`s what my liver told me), sit down and push the play button on me CD player. Oka are an Australian combo featuring Matt (keyboards, percussion and programming), Chris (saxophone, percussion and flutes) and Didgeristu (yadaki aka didgeridoo, percussion and turntables). This is their first album. It came out in 2002, on their own label, Oka music. There`s 11 songs for a total running time of 51.51 minutes. Oka likes to shake, mix things up a bit and the result is simply amazing. It would be a damned shame to say this falls under the category of `world music `. Their music combines elements of (in no particular order): electronic, reggae, folk, world & country, dub, roots reggae, tribal and jazz. This is an infectious, potent mix. A nice way to start 2016 folks. More details here: http://www.okamusic.com/