Troubleman

In the 90s, Mark Pritchard was best known for his work in ambient house, IDM, downtempo, primarily through the duo Global Communication, who always managed to be unusually patient, supple, loving, elegant.

When that union dissolved, he pushed ahead in the same direction but with a shift in contextual foundation; he left the cerebral chill of Northern Europe and let his mind and ear drift across the Atlantic to the unhurried and free-spirited coastal enclaves of Brazil for a bossa nova and samba record under the alias Troubleman.

 

Time Out of Mind is a tranquil and warm album that seems built around the possibility of making electro-bossa music, very much in vogue in the post-Theivery Corporation and MPB-revival era, with white privilege and collector culture not at the epicenter. It's a sincere record, one that compassionately seeks to not only reference but build upon and expand another culture's sound through thoughtful, meditative reverence.

Most the elements are live, a celebration of organic sound and meandering arrangement, influenced by Brazil's storied musical tradition and yet so very imbued with Pritchard's precise and club-oriented, Western electronic wizardry.

Highlights are "Toda Hora," a collaboration with Brazil-born Smoke City vocalist Nina Miranda, and the pair that is "Paz" and "Zap," the latter song being not much more than the former in reverse. Eerie and sensual.