Producer Alan Abrahams (a.k.a. Bodycode) has shared the bill with other well-known artists, Omar S., Move D, and Lawrence, among them, as well as lived in London, Portugal, and Berlin, where he currently resides. And though a life of globetrotting has inevitably shaped his musical style, his contemporary work largely reflects early inspiration from his childhood stomping grounds, a South African township called Bonteheuwel. Such influences are local artists like Brenda Fassie, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, and Miriam Mikeba, as well as the Chicago-style house music—called shebeens—played by DJ friends at illegal bars near Abrahams’ home.

Furthermore, Abrahams has adapted the polyrhythmic sensibility of South African tribes to his own modern sound. “I’d like to think that my music appeals directly to the mind. It goes back to the days when our ancestors used to dance around a fire as a form of communion and release of the daily and weekly troubles or successes,” he says. “This is directly related to us coming together as a whole on the club dancefloor to commune and release. It’s the evolution of our tribal fire dances. My music initially is based on rhythm, to make you dance, the layers transposed onto this are for the psyche to tap into, as a form of meditation and release.”

Since founding his own label, Süd Electronic, in 2002, Abrahams has since released a number of albums, including 2007’s warmly received Powers of Ten. Now the creative producer is preparing for the release of his latest work, Immune, under the Bodycode moniker. Abrahams describes Immune as “equally shaped by science fiction and life in the natural world” and themed around the idea of “time dilation,” the central focus of Andrew Crumey’s novel, Mobius Dick. “I always felt it necessary for my music to contain a certain element of the magic [that] is in nature,” he says. “All our technologies are an emulation of what has existed in the natural world in one form or another.”

Pick up Immune on June 22. In the meantime, Ghostly, who will release the album, has given us this sneak preview:

“What Did You Say”

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