Think Of One

Can you take on another culture's music and keep your own identity? Can you interpret without appropriating? When a band is as unconventional as Think Of One, the possibility for missteps equals the potential for genius. A traveling circus of performers, Think of One band members move to a place, learn the local music, collaborate with local artists, and only then think about recording an album. Thankfully, the results skew closer to genius. The group began as a loose collective of 20 musicians who shared lodgings in Antwerp, Belgium. After whittling down the lineup, the six surviving members transformed a truck into a mobile stage and struck out into the world, making performance a regular part of their musical explorations. In their travels they've worked with Congolese, Inuit and Moroccan musicians, among others, and recorded seven albums under four different names (in only five years). By the time Crammed Discs picked them up, the band was ready to move onto Brazil. The result, Trafico, reinterprets regional styles like forro and coco, utilizing under-the-radar local singers including the 66-year-old Dona Cila Do Coco while also referencing dub and French pop. The entire project is helmed by Belgian David Bovee's mellow, almost insouciant voice and Roel Poriau's programming.