Vinyl LP
Psychology professor at Columbia College Chicago, regular publisher at Psychology Today, author of three books—Rami Gabriel is a man always at work. Unsatisfied with mere academic pursuits, he’s also a practitioner of classical Arabic, Egyptian and Lebanese music. So to see him sign to Sooper Records and create something that is both accessible and eclectic is just more evidence of Gabriel’s dynamic sensibility; he’s a polymath who’s not interested in taking himself too seriously.
He als likes to flit around with different styles. Opener “Like a monk” is a slow burn psych-rocker with lots of intertwining parts—the Velvet Underground if they had better equipment—but he follows that song up with “That’s what I been sayin’,” a folksy ode to the annals of history being erased by the victors. To punctuate this musical diversity, “Bad instincts” is straight up pop-punk, with Gabriel delivering the instantly classic opening line “Your mother must’ve been one hell of a cunt!”
That’s What I Been Sayin’ feels like a Rami Gabriel Greatest Hits compilation. There’s no-wave, dub, garage rock, Moog synths, and none of them ever feel out of place. “Love stop Hugo” is a highlight, the blocky drums making it sound like you’re in a video game where the polygons are still loading. And “Ain’t nobody move me” combines Arthur Russell with 808s-era Kanye—a sentence I’d never expect to use when describing a psychology professor’s music, yet it works easily.
The best track on That’s what I been sayin’ is one squarely in Gabriel’s wheelhouse, “Buzuq synth.” To hear him switch from popular American subgenres to a vastly different style is thrilling, completely going against the grain of everything that preceded it. The buzuq playing is mesmerizing, with hypnotic triplets helped along by intermittent breakbeats in a strange yet satisfying combination. It’s all in a day’s work for Gabriel, a serious student of music who also knows how to have fun.
