Farees
Border Patrol
(Rez’arts)

A snare marries a quickly picked acoustic guitar on “Sand Ni##ger!” the opener on Italian producer/activist Farees’ new Border Patrol. It’s a sly beginning, with some cool slide guitar making its way in on a surely pointed lyric.

“Y’All Don’t Know What’s Going On” features Calexico and a real neat tom beat mixing with the horns. Again, Farees isn’t singing so much, but it doesn’t matter. He places backing vocals in the mix for a solid addition to the melody, and when he does sing, he manages his lower range perfectly

I like the noisy guitar feedback and riffing that opens “Independence #D.” “Rome-interlude” offers some scat-singing, a metallic beat, and again some noisy guitar; it is indeed a nice interlude. Some guitar picking with echo and Farees telling his jail story informs “Weird Statistics.”

What sounds like a dobro (?)  leads us into another spoken word, metallic picked rumination with “I’m A Demon,” but we’re back to an actual song on the next tune, with its roiling guitar riff, slow style bass playing on “Split Second.” Farees layers the guitars sweetly and again offers harmony vocals in the chorus just about when we are aching for them. Halfway through, we get a bridge where there’s a strummed upbeat to the proceedings. This is my favorite tune on Border Patrol.

Slow scratchy metallic acoustic guitar with some children’s voices in the background is all there is to the beautiful ender here, “Pegu.”

Border Patrol says a lot, has some solid guitar playing, and Farees’s opinion, style, and mastery all over it.