RAMZi - Phobiza 'Noite' vol.2 EP (2017)

Phoebé Guillemot's music can feel like alien terrain. As RAMZi, she twists exotic samples, percussion and vocals into something unfamiliar, making songs that seem to spread outwards and move in confusing patterns. A RAMZi track is like a living collage in which all the fragments are shifting. Phobiza "Noite" Vol. 2—a follow-up to 2016's Phobiza Dia: Vol.1 on Total Stasis—presents four concise and captivating sketches.

Phobiza "Noite" Vol. 2 may be four tracks long but it flows like one piece. Fans of previous releases like Houti Kush might recognize the birdsong backdrop of "For Vanda," where buoyant hand percussion pairs with snatches of horns, like a dub instrumental. Like Guillemot's best music, it's detailed, swampy and humid. She gets housey on "Fuma" with deflated DJ Sprinkles-style chords that have the dull gleam of fogged glass. Guillemot throws tabla into the mix on EP highlight "Messiah," where her voice turns from a low garble into childlike squeaks. Guillemot's vocals are distinctive, rarely intelligible and almost never follow a clear melody—they suit her abstract landscapes. By the time Phobiza "Noite" Vol. 2 ends with "Male heya," we're back in the peaceful birdsong it began with. Guillemot can make the strangest of places feel like home.