Australia’s TEMPLE STEP PROJECT Explores Global Devotional Beats on ‘TRIBE’ [Review/Stream]
Guided by an unwavering maverick spirit, Melbourne, Australia-based musical enigma Temple Step Project remains one of the best kept secrets in the game. An ambitious, intentional vehicle for deep healing music, Temple Step Project is renowned for crafting exhilarating electronic canvases, tribal-ethno expeditions that coalesce in mystic, medicinal fashion. For nearly a decade, Temple Step Project’s unicorn sound art is widely celebrated in Ecstatic Dance communities around the world, and among the most popular sets at conscious gatherings and festivals.
Conceived and created by Benjamin Last, who’s been making music professionally for the better part of thirty years, Temple Step Project incorporates a supremely-talented cast of crucial collaborators. Combining sample-based beats with organic percussion, ethnic melodic instrumentation, an array of synthesizers and ancestral vocal styles, intoxicating intercontinental rhythms punctuated by powerful low-end thump. The amalgam of ancient instruments and modern technology led Temple Step Project to identify where his highest level of creativity resides.
In addition to prolific electronic production, Temple Step is also an eastern percussionist, playing tabla, frame drum, daf, darbukka, riq, and a traditional drum kit to express the mystic tribal being within. The sum of these parts is an ethereal elixir that facilitates Benjamin taking dancers and listeners on a transformational excursion, while summoning profound emotions and ideas sometimes long dormant within ourselves.
Temple Step Project’s 2020 full-length LP Tribe is a polychromatic dose of medicinal sound art, avant-garde electronic music meticulously sourced from ancestral ritual and global cultures. Tribe deftly fuses energies and elements native to indigenous cultures in faraway lands with modern, speakerbox-throttling sound design – and the burning desires of a teaming dancefloor.
Throughout the eleven-track Tribe odyssey, Temple Step Project connects a plethora of unique artisans to further enhance his musical manifestations. To do so, Benjamin invites an impressive cadre of devoted practitioners of ethno-centric artforms and instruments to help lead his sacramental sojourns with appropriate reverence and intention. Temple Step Project is music made to empower people, informed by themes of Oneness, healing, and overcoming adversity. All of these elements are present in abundance on the heart-filling Tribe, released on the Desert Trax record label.
The emboldening opening salvo, “Jhini” is a lengthy number that features the devotional Sufi sounds of Tahir Qawwal from Fanna Fi Allah. The brooding dirge “Kamanjā“ is rich in melancholic violin, understated rimshots, synth bass and spooky atmospherics. On “Pull It Back” featuring Australian producer Dysphemic , attentive listeners will certainly pick up on some distinct an-ten-nae vibes, as Benjamin credits the Bay Area bass titan with a sizable influence on his style.
Another brother from Down Under, Byron Bay flutist Avishai Barnatan charms a cobra atop nuanced percussion and foreboding bass tones on tribal Trap thunderclap “Raqsā“ (Arabic, “to dance”). The assertive “Beluen” is a uptempo bass joint, driven by hypnotic percussion drenched in reverb, with subtle keys, minor synths, and mournful violin. An addictive, growling bass tone pulsating at the core, this track somewhat reminds me of Dub Kirtan All-Stars – Freq Nasty and David Starfire’s long-defunct side project.
While Temple Step Project is decidedly original music, Benjamin wears his influences on his sleeve. Within these meditations in sound and energy, one picks up on subtle permeating scents of Savej, as well as Liquid Bloom’s shamanic soundscapes, Middle Eastern melodies reminiscent of Starfire’s early work, the vocal driven global bass of divine Deya Dova, CloZee’s ethnic instrumentation woven within tasteful Trap, the sacred futurism of Orenda, and thundering bombast of UK Trap technician Troyboi.
The second half of Tribe is equally engaging as the front end. Byron Bay’s Murray Kyle honors Mother Earth on the defiant, euphoric stomp “We Are The Tribe”, which directly inspired the title and direction of this record. Singer, poet, and neo-shaman, Darpan offers a priestly meditation on “A New Vision (Ceremonial Dance Mix)” with poignant spoken word atop an understated, meditative rhythm steered by ancient hand drums and buoyant bass tones.
Kailash Kokopelli’s ancestral chants and Native American prayer flute bless “Watayana”, Melbourne’s Madhu Honey joins partner Benjamin for a patient, sustained serenity on “This Love”. A 10-minute final transmission, “Offering” welcomes the traditional Mangku blessing of Balinese healer Kekut Susila to bring this multi-hued expedition into port.
In 2020, Temple Step Project’s ‘Morning Star (Resonant Migration)’ was chosen as the opening track from the Regen Ambient Meditation compilation, also released by Desert Trax (label operated by Amani Friend of Desert Dwellars and Liquid Bloom). Collaborations and remixes are on the way between Temple Step Project and Deya Dova, Jonny Joon, and Ruby Chase, among many others. On the heels of Tribe’s extremely-positive worldwide reception, there’s also a Tribe remixes release planned for 2022.
Benjamin Last traces his own roots deep within ceremony and healing. A reiki master, psycho-spiritual, and sound healer, Temple Step Project feels most alive when Benjamin is working in service through music and sound. Whether playing devotional music on tabla, middle eastern percussion in Sacred circles, or rocking DJ decks for a jammin’ dancefloor, Temple Step feels no borders, separation or discernment between genres, places or time. This man has found his Tribe, and music fans and ecstatic dancers the world over are far better off for it.
words – B.Getz
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