Review: The fantastic Tumblack was an overlooked group project made up of prolific French-Beninois everything-composer Wally Badarou and Tele Music library star Sauveur Mallia. Described as a "truly special disco-not-disco LP" by Be With, Tumblack saw to recreating the overtop pressures of hi-NRG disco without indulging the genre's otherwise glitzy sonic excesses. Instead, the likes of 'Invocation' and 'Parlement' remain rooted in deep percussed drum sounds, taking many cues from the zouk-informed musical traditions of the neighbouring Caribbean isles of Martinique and Guadeloupe. Only perhaps 'Caraiba' picks up a true boogie steam, with clavinet and bass enshrouding the crescendo in a true state of ecstasy. With original copies by and large nonexistent by now, this is a due (or possibly even overdue) repress indeed.
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