The first part of this track is a swirling mass of sound, exotic tropical flavours with warm crackly human chanting, jungle life, birds singing—but 'Mbuti / Devotion to the Rainforest' also gloops with a subtle rumble of bass, judders along to the hefty swing of the beat, sharp driving hi-hats keeping up energetic pace, augmenting the natural energy of this track. Soon we dive into a clean section where guitar chords acoustic and clean and raw-sounding jam in syncopated bossa nova style, jewels of percussion and clonking marimba click-clopping echoing the feel of a rainforest. Endlessly luscious, the cascading sounds reflect the plethora of life constantly chattering, a mix of samples and real instrumentation painting the trees and leaves and the evershifting nature of it all.
The musicmaker behind the track Julian Borrego tells us that the most prominent sample comes a song, also called 'Devotion to the Rainforest', recorded by members of the Mbuti people from the Congo region of Africa: "While crate digging I found an old album of their music that was recorded in the jungle (you can hear the birds and animals in the background)." The devotional chanting, the audible life of the jungle, implies an explicit connection to nature that cities and suburbs pine for, and which Julian Borrego celebrates with upbeat funk flavours. But he reason for this sampling, the locative placement of sounds, the lush jungle environment? "To continue to spread awareness about the disastrous environmental issues we face today," explains Julian, "and to send mother nature love and gratitude through music."
- 🔔 This jungly track is taken from Julian Borrego's recent self-released Ouroboros EP, which you can listen to via his SoundCloud.
