Clones & False Prophets

Clones & False Prophets

Clones and False Prophets is the latest chapter in the Myth of Badawi, which now spans 8 years and 5 albums, but anyone who has listened to Badawi’s music know that it reaches far beyond its years. Like the heritage of its creator, Raz Mesinai, the Badawi saga bridges continents, musical styles and spiritual faiths into something sublime. Clones and False Prophets is easily the most varied and dynamic Badawi release. There are elements of all four previous albums but also some differences. Perhaps most significant is that on Clones… Raz utilizes his increasing connection to NYC’s downtown improvisational music scene based around the nightclub Tonic by drafting the following masters into his sonic army: Marc Ribot, Ben Perowsky, Doug Wieselman, Shahzad Ismaily & Carolyn "Honeychild" Coleman. The musicians’ unique improvisational personalities create opposing ideas within each song, which ends up serving as a musical treaty between all the ideas vying for power. So the listener, whether they be a heretic, etheric, clone or False Prophet, hears mighty forces negotiate terms & conditions, choose flags & uniforms, and stake their own musical territory. Or as Raz himself states, "create angles, lines and borders in what was once a circle." The resulting album is as complex as it is rooted. One feels the tension beneath every note, constantly threatening to explode into violence. Occasionally it does. From the brooding opening of its first two tracks Clones… slowly gets more intricate as its rhythms build in complexity and fervor. The percussion and drums do something transcendent on "Enter the Tomb Raider". The players ride a wonderfully snaky guitar riff on "Atoning of the Myths". And it all explodes with "Battle Cry", which sounds like Middle East gone Krautrock. "Waves Of Conflict" is the albums last great struggle and "To Be Continued" ends Clones & False Prophets with the repetition of one word: "confusion". This is an album meant to be read into. This is the myth unfolding before your very ears