Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

Those of you who remember the mid-70s might have caught a syndicated television series titled "The Starlost," about a group of people in a giant spaceship who thought they were actually living on a world, and what happened when they discovered that they were actually on a ship traveling through uncharted galaxies. Part of the plot was later borrowed for a series called "Battlestar Galactica." In any event, I was reminded of those programs when I first started listening to ASSEMBLY by Zawose and Brook. The entire project sounds like African music if it had originated and been created on a spaceship.

Zawose and Brook are Dr. Hukwe and Charles Zawose and Michael Brook. Dr. Zuwose and Brook handle most of the compositional chores; Dr. Zawose's compositions are based on the traditions of the Wagogo people of Tanzania; the lyrics are in Swahili and Zawose's own language of Kigogo.  Brook provides the western influence in the form of guitar, bass, keyboard bass, brass, and ukulele. The result is a funhouse of music that turns sideways and upside down at the drop of a hat, sometimes slowly, sometimes at breathtaking speed.  ASSEMBLY is just that --- a combination of world, rock, new age, electronica and space music that forms something new.

"No Joy" is perhaps the most melodic on the ASSEMBLY, beginning with some aural somersaults before settling into a ballad which would be almost tranquil but for the abrupt chord changes, which initially sound alien to the Western ear but which are consistent and almost logical within the overall context of the track, before moving into an abrupt rhythm change which almost sounds as if Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters highjacked the project. It fades into "Sweet Deceiver," a musical accompaniment to a carousel ride where the horse rise and fall in fits and starts and move in backward and forward circles around a fiery amusement park. "Voices From Home" is what "Cool Jerk" would have sounded like if The Capitols had recorded in Zanzibar instead of Philadelphia. The entire project is a herky-jerky, seamless, multicultural ride that takes the melding of eastern and western music somewhere it has never been before and probably never will be again. "Cry of the Bush Bird" begins with a fat, funky bass solo which provides a basis for a counterpointed chant that is soon joined by a horn blowout.

I guarantee that you've never heard anything even remotely like ASSEMBLY. It's by turns so unlikely and so obvious that you'll wonder why no one ever thought of something like this before and immediately be able to give yourself the answer. A stunning, breathtaking work.