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power enough, wrapped up here in the brash four-colour anatomically unfeasible splen- dour of the (undownloadable) comic book packaging. Superman, we are reminded, was created in the 1930s by two Jewish artists, and the album’s centrepiece, Kaddish For Superman, is an absurdly noodling prog jour- ney into a statement of respect for the tradi- tion’s survivors.
Yom ensures that the charmingly clunky retro instruments of his band work abrasively in order to provide the necessary and chal- lenging kapow, with Manuel Peskine’s Rhodes keyboards almost as dominant in the mix as Yom’s faultless clarinet.
The uneasy retro funk and punk of Pic-
nic In Tchernobyl gradually transforms into the bludgeoning cascade of drums in the tough, organic epic, Along The Red Danube, which continues into the leadenly impassive and serious Killing A Gypsie. Klezmer is an ideal starting point for all of these rumina- tions and sonic explorations. It is a genre that has spread through the enforced migrations of history, and this very travel and change has ensured its survival despite attempts to exter- minate both its practitioners and its forms: From Eastern and Central Europe and then, very practically, into North America and inevitably into jazz. Yom argues, rightly, that it makes just as much logical sense for his 21st century Parisian influences to adapt klezmer further and personally. The results are absorbing and frustrating, occasionally threatening to sink under the weight of his multi-faceted ambitions, but always gripping thanks to his exemplary musicianship.
www.budamusique.com John Pheby
MASCARIMIRI Gitanistan Dilino 2011
Mascarimiri are a four-piece band from the Salento region of southern Italy. Their sixth album, Gitanistan, is the result of a two-year investi- gation the Rom (gypsy) influences and origins of Salentine families by the band and this research has also been turned into a docu- mentary film.
Mascarimiri base their sound on the music of southern Italy – in particular the form of tarantella dance known as pizzica – but integrate it with the electric guitar, dub reggae, sampling and sequencing (they have been described as ‘punk-dub tarantolato’). In addition, a host of guest musicians provide a rich variety of musical textures.
Bourrée De Lu Ntunucciu combines the contrasting styles of clarinettists Arnaud Fromont and Dario Stefanizzi with ragga -
The Balkan Brass Battlers
muffin vocals of Jagdish Kinnoo, Farandola De Muro Leccese combines the traditional voices of the trio Nux Vomica over a bed of electric guitars and electronic instrumen- taion and A Uce includes the polyphonic singing of members of French Occitan group Cor De La Plana.
The music of southern Italy is already an amalgam of styles and influences that include Balkan, Greek and Arabic elements so it read- ily lends itself to being mixed with reggae and the numerous other styles that are inter- woven on this fascinating album. Even the Catalan lyrics on the remix of the title track (featuring Ai Ai Ai) don’t seem out of place.
www.mascarimiri.com Michael Hingston
BOBAN & MARKO
MARCOVIÇ ORCHESTRA v. FANFARE CIOCARLIA Balkan Brass Battle Asphalt Tango ATR 2911
Special residential projects in which a group of disparate artists brainstorm, compose, perform and record are all the rage at the moment. And Central Europe is also joining in the conceit. Already this year Crammed Discs have blended the strings of Taraf de Haïdouks and the funk of Kocani Orkestar into a genuine pan-Euro- pean band of gypsies. Now Germany’s Asphalt Tango have decided to clash their labelmates, Fanfare Ciocarlia and Boban & Marko Markoviç Orchestra, into a seismic competition which pits the familiar solo virtuosity of the Markoviçs against the insane and unstoppable speed and tightness of the Romanian band.
The hilarious CD blurb discusses the ‘resentment’ and ‘whispers’ that existed between the two bands, of how Boban Markoviç sat and ‘brooded’ on Fanfare’s ‘claim’ to hold Number One Brass Band status, of the need for a ‘show-down’. The blurb does not go on to mention just how convenient the shared label therefore was, or how almost half the tracks on the album are collaborations.
Recorded in just forty-eight madcap hours in the Pensiune Dracula, just outside the walls of Vlad Tepes’s castle, the album is inevitably rough, loud and wayward. This is, literally, a great record, for while there’s a satisfying intensity about the first Markoviç track, Mrak Kolo, it’s also a fine example of how uncertainty and rough edges have been retained in the mix. This can be further wit- nessed when Fanfare whip themselves and their battered and battering old instruments into a ridiculously frenzied and staccato chas- ing of their own tales in the raw Suita A La Ciobanas. The bands come together for John Barry’s James Bond Theme, which has a sud- denly cavernous production and is proving a mighty denouement live. Each group takes its
turn at equally brilliant and disrespectful readings of Caravan: Fanfare’s take is warm and jaunty, while Markoviç really shows off with a louche swagger, showcasing their tremendous knowledge of soundtrack and jazz. Things build then towards a joint read- ing of Disco DÏumbus, from the pen of extraordinary Hungarian fiddler (and fre- quent Markoviç collaborator) Félix Lajkó, in which a full-bodied exploration of the bands’ lower ranges gives the combined ensemble an expansive momentum.
There is nothing subtle about the project. There are no attempts to research unexpected commonalities or to create new forms (the winning achievement of the Taraf/ Kocani undertaking). This is rather about the visceral manic pleasure of uncompromisingly fast vir- tuosity, endlessly loud groove, off-the-cuff and effortful panache. It’s too vital for subtleties.
www.asphalt-tango.de John Pheby
PHILLIP HENRY & HANNAH MARTIN
Singing The Bones Dragonfly Music DMCD001
This duo is fast becom- ing hot property on the folk scene, and it’s easy to hear why. Phillip is an inordi-
nately fine slide guitarist and harmonica virtu- oso, while Hannah is a singer-songwriter with an acute sense of tradition who also happens to be an accomplished fiddler and banjo play- er. Though best known latterly for supporting Show Of Hands (notably Steve Knightley on his Live In Somerset album), they’ve appeared at numerous festivals in their own right and on BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction.
Their philosophy (and the album title) is summarised in the liner-note: the act of singing the bones requires that the singer breathe his/her soul over the collected frag- ments of traditional song, and in doing so they “hope to sing the ghosts of the past into the present”. Even so, only two of the items on the disc (Courting Is A Pleasure and Death And The Lady) are purely traditional in origin; these are treated with respect and blessed with innovative arrangements (although the latter’s beatbox intervention takes a little getting used to). The remainder of the songs, though self-penned, are clearly inspired by traditional sources and might easily be taken for such: the keening Lulle Me Behind Thee and the ballad Queen Gwendolen both have the requisite air of antiquity, while Three Witches (concerning the 1682 Bideford Witch Trials) and The Painter (the story of Hannah’s grandma’s father) show Hannah’s penchant for historical narrative.
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