Clap! Clap!

A Thousand Skies

Joyful, energetic odyssey through African and urban electronic tropes. TAYI BEBBA, the debut album from Italian producer Cristiano Crisci AKA Clap! Clap!, joined the dots between the melodies and rhythms of Africa and the multitudinous urban electronica factions, and Crisci continues to do so here. Most of the tracks last just two minutes and change, an approach that suits the music’s intensity. Fidgety footwork stylings underpin Betelgeuse’s Endless Bamboo Oceans, while the similarly pithy Flowing Like A Snake In Ophiuchus’ Arms straps north African strings to crunching hip-hop. When Crisci does expansive, with the six-minute Ode To The Pleiades, the tremor is sizeable, its rattlesnake beats sinking into jazz piano riffs and iridescent synth pads. There’s a nod to Africa’s storytelling heritage in a narrative woven into the record – a girl’s journey across the stars – but the real trip’s a musical one.