MÒZÂMBÎQÚE: Embracing the Nature of It All
THERE’S AN OFTEN-REFERENCED SAYING BY SCOTTISH-AMERICAN CLERGYMAN — Peter Marshall: “Oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure.” I am not an arborist (I’m sure oaks can grow equally strong in a motionless environment) nor a jeweler (I only watched Blood Diamond for Leonardo Dicaprio’s accent), but I know it’s a general allegory defining growth through hardship and adversity. Ambient electronic producer MÒZÂMBÎQÚE is a prime example of this ethos.
Listeners won’t know by his catalog or online persona, but a tumultuous trek through East Africa inspired his artistry. His journey, consisting of squatting in an “abandoned shipwreck” and being detained by local authorities, played a crucial role in the musician’s grounded identity.
Andrew Smith was — and still is — MÒZÂMBÎQÚE before the identity was actualized. It just took a hefty self-realization to materialize. After graduating from UC Santa Barbara, Smith bounced around various alt-rock bands, playing drums. He grew tired of touring, “relying on others,” and being in bands, and chased his passion for travel. He booked a one-way ticket to Zimbabwe and toured across eastern Africa.
After leaving Mozambique, Smith found himself in Kenya as he searched for a way to Madagascar. It would take multiple boats to get there, with stops in between in the Comoro Islands. During nautical travel, a local offered to show him around in exchange for helping him develop his English. They agreed to the terms, the man gave Smith his number, and they parted ways when they reached land. The language barrier between Smith and the other locals proved to be more trouble than he bargained for.
“There was no tourism there,” Smith said. Comorans only speak Comoran or French and had no shelter for an American with no method of communicating.
Smith stayed in the abandoned ship for four days, only accessible “during low tide,” before a group of locals locked him away in jail. After being held for a day and stripped of his clothes, he feared the worst. In a stroke of fate, they found the English-speaking local’s number in his pocket and brought him in to clear up the misunderstanding. They were suspicious that, because virtually no one visits Comoros, he might be a US fugitive. After handling the confusion, they arranged a boat ride to Madagascar and got him home.
“Getting lost, arrested, and learning a lot about myself was just a formative time in my life,” Smith described. Returning as a changed man, he decided he wanted to make music without compromise.
He chose MÒZÂMBÎQÚE as his moniker because he admired how phonetically pleasant the people’s accents and language sounded.
Since beginning his pursuit of a music career, Smith has found himself in many roles. He’s produced music for others, released several projects dating back to 2018, started his own label, and continues his connection with nature whenever possible. His Instagram is littered with posts about his hikes and doing volunteer trail work to preserve their natural beauty.
African debacle aside, there’s a lot to Smith’s story. He lived back and forth between the Bay Area and Boise, Idaho (where his parents currently reside) as a child, and developed an early taste for music through his parents playing “everything, from The Rolling Stones [to] The Beatles.”
Jazz perhaps cast the largest shadow over Smith, as his father played saxophone, and “competitive jazz drums” occupied much of Smith’s adolescent headspace. He even mentioned that his parents rented out their house to Grammy award–winning saxophonist Stan Getz (“The Girl From Ipanema”) for a few years before Smith was born.
“[It was] competitive in the sense of the movie Whiplash, [when] I went to high school … but without the teacher being terrible and hitting me,” Smith said.
Between jazz and rock, Smith’s sound leapfrogged between genres at each stage of his life. From attending “a dozen or 15” Tycho shows to Bonobo and Four Tet, his musical interests transmuted to his current groovy electronic sound. Along the way, he met producer Soft Palace in an Instagram comment thread, leading to their newest EP, Peril 1998, dropping today.
Four of the five tracks have already been released, with “Embrace” being the only debut. But what a debut it is — the groovy song emerges as a more pop-centric take on MÒZÂMBÎQÚE’s eclectic sound and is accompanied by a music video (directed by Devon Whitaker and Jayson Angove). Smith’s first studio music video is a smash by all accounts, presenting a beautiful duet overlaid by grainy filters and neon lights.
The “Embrace” video appeals to the senses and encapsulates MÒZÂMBÎQÚE as an artist. Soft Palace and Smith’s faces remain largely hidden throughout the entire video, focusing the cameras on vocalists The Philharmonik and Destiny Molina. Soft Palace keeps the tempo on the drums while wearing a knit balaclava with bunny ears. Smith’s long and perpetually bouncy hair covers his visage when he switches from synthesizer to keytar. The vintage visuals are certainly there, but Smith lets the sounds speak volumes.
“Embrace” is just one of five tracks between the dynamic duo of producers. MÒZÂMBÎQÚE and Soft Palace create these effective, hazy dreamscapes from cohesively layered elements that feel busy and weightless at the same time. Even with most of the EP available beforehand — they began rolling it out in February — the complete project feels as fresh and pensive as the first time you heard each single.
MÒZÂMBÎQÚE’s success is not defined by the wild excursion that precedes him. The story isn’t told or depicted in his tracks. It was simply the vehicle that catalyzed a work in progress. With Peril 1998 serving as his cocoon, it’s apparent that the oak grows stronger and the diamond forms more every day.
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