Uploaded May 2011 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Bassist Yossi Fine had an idea. In his head, he heard sounds that fused tribal African music with hip-hop beats, Jamaican dub techniques, and dance floor friendly bass lines. When the West-Indian/Israeli musician couldn't find anything like that in the record stores, he decided to create it ....... and so, Ex-Centric Sound System was born.
For Yossi, the idea of crossing musical boundaries was not uncommon, having played with artists as diverse as jazz man Gil Evans, rocker Lou Reed, salsa star Ruben Blades, and hip hop group Naughty by Nature. After much experimentation at his studio in Tel Aviv and shows around Europe, the group recorded "Electric Voodooland" in 2000, its title strongly echoing Jimi Hendrix's seminal 1968 album, "Electric Ladyland". It's a comparison Yossi finds perfectly apt since "he definitely influenced me," he says, "and he's as important as any roots musician who came before".
Led by Yossi and Ghanaian master musician and choreographer, Nana Dadzie, Ex-Centric Sound System fuses pulsating drum and bass with authentic African instrumentation and chants, producing a definitive Afro-electronic vibe. Drawing inspiration from the diverse cultural backgrounds of its members, which also includes Darley Otutu on percussion, flutes and vocals, and Moroccan-Israeli drummer, Michael Avgil, it is the uncompromising fusion of ideas that makes Ex-Centric Sound System unique. "We use kora, balafon, and other African instruments, but we're not always putting them in the pure form, we're putting them through distortion, delay and echo," says Yossi. "But the feel comes from the ambience: the sampling, singing, environmental, and village sounds."
Described by Vibe Magazine as "spiritual food in the pop-music desert", Ex-Centric Sound System is unleashing a modern music revolution on the world music scene with its seemingly bottomless musical melting pot of exotic and deeply textured flavours. They will transport you into a new sound for the future, set to the hypnotic grooves of one of the best bass players in the world.
Bassist Yossi Fine had an idea. In his head, he heard sounds that fused tribal African music with hip-hop beats, Jamaican dub techniques, and dance floor friendly bass lines. When the West-Indian/Israeli musician couldn't find anything like that in the record stores, he decided to create it ....... and so, Ex-Centric Sound System was born.
For Yossi, the idea of crossing musical boundaries was not uncommon, having played with artists as diverse as jazz man Gil Evans, rocker Lou Reed, salsa star Ruben Blades, and hip hop group Naughty by Nature. After much experimentation at his studio in Tel Aviv and shows around Europe, the group recorded "Electric Voodooland" in 2000, its title strongly echoing Jimi Hendrix's seminal 1968 album, "Electric Ladyland". It's a comparison Yossi finds perfectly apt since "he definitely influenced me," he says, "and he's as important as any roots musician who came before".
Led by Yossi and Ghanaian master musician and choreographer, Nana Dadzie, Ex-Centric Sound System fuses pulsating drum and bass with authentic African instrumentation and chants, producing a definitive Afro-electronic vibe. Drawing inspiration from the diverse cultural backgrounds of its members, which also includes Darley Otutu on percussion, flutes and vocals, and Moroccan-Israeli drummer, Michael Avgil, it is the uncompromising fusion of ideas that makes Ex-Centric Sound System unique. "We use kora, balafon, and other African instruments, but we're not always putting them in the pure form, we're putting them through distortion, delay and echo," says Yossi. "But the feel comes from the ambience: the sampling, singing, environmental, and village sounds."
Described by Vibe Magazine as "spiritual food in the pop-music desert", Ex-Centric Sound System is unleashing a modern music revolution on the world music scene with its seemingly bottomless musical melting pot of exotic and deeply textured flavours. They will transport you into a new sound for the future, set to the hypnotic grooves of one of the best bass players in the world.
