Another mash-up of reviews of music from around the globe
Wardruna: Birna
Fiercely tribal music, from noble purveyors of Norse Culture. Think: Gruff voiced vocals, ethereal voices, chants. You can just imagine this music accompanying dancing around the fire-pit. ‘Hertan’opens the proceedings – there’s one hell of a lot going on. It’s definitely not a light-weight listen. In fact, by the time of ‘Birna’, the title track, it’s actually a tad oppressive. For people of a certain age, it is somewhat reminiscent of Magma, the late-60s/early 70s French outfit who sang and chanted in their own fictional Slavic language, Kobian.
Birna official video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLqNSAZEFjU
Wardruna apparently means ‘the guardian of secrets’ and ‘she who whispers’. So, it’s full of Runic rites, ethnic instruments – an intensity of sound. At times it feels more like a religious rites ceremony. Sonorous. Complex. Unnerving. ‘Dvaledraumar’ is quieter, more meditative, offering repetition through bands of sonic waves. Also, it had me thinking of a Black Mass-funeral. Indeed, there’s more than an element of menace and threat in the midst of much of the music. Shades of Viking pillage and plunder as in ‘Skuggehesten’. Certainly with this album, you either like it or you don’t!
BaBa ZuLa: Istanbul Sokaklari
Full of atmospheric street sounds. This new album from the Turkish psychonauts, BaBa ZuLa is epic. The tension builds up even before the music kicks off. Train announcements, you are about to board the Istanbul Express to Munich. There’s much use of ‘taksim’ – drone notes. ‘Arsiz Saksagan’ is a chant-like song (about the cheeky magpie), hypnotic, propelling forwards with guitar and saz notes to the fore. It’s Turkish, but also a fascinating electronic enchantment, echoes of ghosts, hints of North American natives chanting, with added psych-bass notes, maybe some Indian Krishna recitations. Who knows?
‘Murat Etal’ is a melange of theremin, saz, field recordings, and drives slowly, inexorably onwards. Esma Ertal whispers witchy words to the Eastern mysticism. Umit Adakale provides darbuka and percussion. Then we have a full-on psychedelic feast with ‘Yok Haddi Yok Hesabi’. Wonderfully creepy. It adds up to a crescendo of sound and then almost a train crash. And finally, winds down, drones and quiet saz plucked towards an enchanted oblivion.
Yok Haddi Yok Hesabi’ video (nice graphics too): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpAYan01GIM
SRC: Scot Richard Case
A Detroit band who were a headline act in their own area, but never made it into the big time. And were almost unheard of in the UK. Something of a missing-link in US rock psychedelia.
‘Bolero’ from the re-formed original line-up of SRC: LIVE at Whites in Saginaw in 2011.
Scott Richardson-vocals, Glen Quackenbush-Keyboard, Gary Quackenbush-guitar, Ray Goodman-guitar/vocals, Steve Lyman-guitar/vocals, with Ralph McKee-bass, and Pete Woodman-drums: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E30u0OIACpc
‘I’m So Glad’ from 1967: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLkwyWrNomU
‘Up all night’ from ‘Milestones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6CyoYSlL-M
P.A.I.N. : Crisis Time
Late in 2024, the Propaganda And Information Network released their first new album in about 25 years. It was aptly entitled, ‘Crisis Time’. It starts off with snippets of news items, protests, conflicts, then it’s into the music. Catchy, dub-wise, ‘Smoking’ is like an old, familiar friend. Some lovely, almost Shadows’s guitar: “All that you need is a fat bag of weed”. ‘Grow more weed’ is their 2024 Manifesto, but is well-known to the P.A.I.N. and RDF fans, and there are many of them. This is a band that was birthed in the same Traveller worlds as RDF (Radical Dance Faction), Rinky-Dink, Chumbawamba, Reality Attack and perhaps even Jah Wobble. ‘SC’ offers an almost metal-riff, providing an accompaniment to some instrumental anarchy. There’s a searing, sneering ‘Scum of the Earth’ – a Mister Rotten moment.
Actually there’s a lot of sensitive musicianship and on tracks like ‘You Know’, complex instrumental arrangements. ‘Revenge Warfare’ takes us into Slits’ territory, and ‘Dirty Bomb’ provides plenty of guitar hooks. But it is important to reflect that, “words will always retain their power”. ‘Retribution Dub’ suggests echoes of RDF’s ‘Surplus People’ to my ears. Good Old Traveller sounds and sentiments. Plenty to get up and bounce to!
P.A.I.N. live 2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5YaOXQGVnI
JeanClaude Vannier est son orchestre de mandolins
I wanted to like and enjoy this album more than I did. There’s just too much Vincent Beer-Demander and his myriad mandolins. I have really enjoyed Vannier’s work with Serge Gainsbourg in past decades. This is all very Parisienne. Romantic and even austere at times. But then, there’s another lurch into humour and caterwauling mandolins! The first couple of tracks have the feel of surreal takes from the ‘Third Man’ film, or, some low-budget black and white sci-fi film. It’s quirky, odd and a bit disquieting. I was waiting for Bela Lugosi to flap into sight as a second-rate, bat!
‘Lost in the City’, like many of the other tracks is essentially a dance tune, even a waltz, a drift into ballet. And it sounds as if is being played from a fairground ride. It’s all very filmic and eccentric. ‘There were elephants’ and ‘Swimsuit Dance’ produce a bit more verve and energy. There are some evocative film and song titles, such as, ‘A photo shoot under the arches’. It seems by the conclusion, ‘endless’.
A little video about the making of the album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0Eoc4rwvCs
‘Lost in the City’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmeBpZEJJn4
Songhoy Blues: Héritage
This album is described by the Malian band as: “represent(ing) the sound of us reconnecting with the spirit of our Malian culture.” In the past I would have described them as essentially a guitar band. They certainly mostly produce up-beat, happy music. However, this is a quieter, more nuanced affair with poly-rhythms and an array of traditional African instruments on display. ‘Toukambela’ offers less than usual guitar sounds and a flute-style lead and lots of inter-twined, layered voices. ‘Dagbi’ is lovely, a complex call and response piece.
Overall, it is a clean, clearly produced album. Easy on the ear. No incendiary guitar duels. It’s mostly an acoustic affair. There are perhaps less standout tracks, but I like ‘Issa’ – it even reminds me of Captain Beefheart’s ‘Sure ‘nuff and yes I do’.
‘Issa’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0TMRxAh5w4
Jan Garbarek
Jan is probably my favourite saxophone player of all time. I was lucky to be on the guest list when he performed in Edinburgh as part of the Jazz & Blues festival. It was stunning. A performance spanning ECM-style jazz from Norwegian, Jan, with Indian/Pakistani percussion. There’s nothing new appearing on the musical landscape from Jan Garbarek, but I can thoroughly recommend checking out his prestigious collection of musical output. Amongst my own personal favourites are:
The strangely eerie and haunting, ‘Dis’ with Ralph Towner (1976): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8EJfEjZESY
Gregorian chants with added sax, ‘Officium’ with the Hilliard Ensemble (1994): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lA4MgFJ-GI
And, world music as high-end musical art, ‘Ragas and Sagas’ with Ustad Fateh Ali Khan (1992): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWUUIzLdqTk
Gianni Tbay’s Blues Against Youth
This is very much a fun-time, up-beat album. Plenty of bluesy guitar, strong beats and rhythms and sing-along choruses. ‘Lost and Sound’ kicks off the collection of songs. A Cowboy Captain Beefheart, perhaps, whilst out searching from shrooms? Definitely, ‘Getting Lost and Sound’! Deep, gruff singing, ‘Learn this Right’ gets into a nice good times groove. Shades of Mungo Jerry’s ‘In the Summertime’. ‘Goin’ to California’ is really bluesy, with lots of bottle-neck slide guitar. It even has some yodelling in tribute to the song’s writer, Jimmie Rodgers.
Yet more good time rockin’ blues with a cover of John Lee Hooker’s version of ‘How can you do it?’ – taken at a fast and furious pace. ‘Snake Away’ offers country-tinged blues harp in a nice shuffling instrumental. And it all finishes up in ‘Emissions’ which offers the listener a fuller, deeper, soundscape.
Here’s the Bandcamp link: https://thebluesagainstyouth.bandcamp.com/album/gianni-tbays-blues-against-youth
Silk Road Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens: American Railroad
This is a very evocative album offering syncopations of chain-gangs building railroads. Oodles of string-plucking, Old-time hoedowns on ‘Steel driving Man/Swannanoa Tunnel’, but with added tabla-style of drums. Rhiannon is often a plaintive voice above Eastern instruments. It’s an experimental World Sound Clash. Despite the album title, the overall sound is more Chinese or Mongol than US of A. Though there are hints of native Americans and their shamen in some lamentations.
‘Far Down’ is almost Scottish or Irish with shades of ‘River Dance’ rhythms. There is an epic, wide-screen sound on the lengthy, ‘Tramping Song’, with plenty of Eastern chanting and whoops of tabla. It’s call and response time in ‘Have you seen my man?’and is much more indicative of USA railroads. ‘Shout’ is the ensemble celebration at the conclusion of the cross-cultural melting pot of an album. It seems to be very long railroad journey.
Website: https://www.silkroad.org/american-railroad
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Alan Dearling
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