73 f BESH O DROM
Kertünk Alatt – Down The Garden NarRator Records NRR107
The fifth album from this Hungarian pan- Balkan band, featured in fR328 after their most recent UK trip in May 2010, is, like their live shows, a high-energy tour de force gath- ering raw material from across the Balkans and imparting to it the band’s own distinctive dance-impelling spin without a slack moment.
Three members of the octet missing from or depped-for on the British gigs – percussion- ist-singer frontman Ádám Pettik, cimbalist József Csurkulya and guitarist Attila Sidoo – are all here, as is new female vocalist Lili Kaszai, who rather than taking solos is heard largely in tandem with Pettik and group vocals.
Jubilantly energised by the rhythms and shapes of its roots, rather than generic brutal Balkan-beat-banging this is real playing and singing, taking full advantage of technology as naturally and effectively as it does the sounds of saxes, kaval, shepherd’s flute, accordeon, cimbalom, bass and drums. No space-filling keyboards; the electronic action is mainly in wind-player Gergely Barcsa’s domain. His Akai EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument), held like a sax but with the full range of synthesised and sampled sound pos- sibilities, in the wrong hands could be a curse, but he makes it a driving force, squee- ing and plunging far above and below the range of his sax to make a whole extra dimension of bubble and whizz that further piles on the excitement.
More UK shows are planned for October.
www.beshodrom.com
Andrew Cronshaw
TICKLED PINK Ceilidh Rooksmere Records RRCD101
Does what it says on the tin… alright, in the title. After trying for ages to be a concert band as well as push the envelope, Simon Care has steered his merry band of explorers, or they steered him, back to the core of their existence. They admit in the booklet this is the album they should have made first. Well, perhaps, but pinning your colours to the mast is something bands are given to doing every so often. The frustration with Tickled Pink is that they issue albums so infrequently it’s hard to chart their development when in reality they have dared so much. A lot of what this group have tried has gone unno- ticed and criminally, unappreciated. Their last album was a splendid effort mixing dance, dub, kraut-rock and psychedelics with fun and cavalier intention.
Ceilidh, whilst nowhere near abandon- ing those envelope pushing tendencies, does refocus the listener on the band’s prime func- tion. I suppose therefore the choice of tunes was deliberate. They’re familiar: Buttered Peas, Horse’s Brawl, Drops Of Brandy, even Dave Whetsone’s old Albion/Cock & Bull chestnut Fretful Porcupine gets a makeover along with Tiger Moth’s The Italian Job.
That’s the crucial bit though, they get a
makeover, not a re-polish, not just another airing, read that – makeover! Mark Hutchin- son once more takes centre stage as producer at Rooksmere Studios. Typically, just when you’d expect them to open with a blast of fruity, chunky jig, they opt instead for a slow build, fiddle and box always up front, the others shuffling in gradually until they’re all in there swinging, chugging and hoofing around the main refrain of Tip Top Polka.
There’s a lot of that, my personal pick would be the aforementioned Porcupine where the whole crew sound as if the party’s going to take off and hurl down the road, cir- cle the roundabout and fly along the by-pass:
note, though, it’s way too short lads! Maybe you’ll dig the groove of Uncle Bernard’s where you’d swear there’s brass in the mix, but a quick check of the credits reveals no such instrument. And we should mention the hilarious yet carefully researched notes which accompany each dance as well as the photos which make the group look like a television makeover crew who’re going to turn your old kitchen into a walk-in shower-cum-wardrobe. Would you let this lot near your favourite floor filler? Why of course.
Ceilidh is a work held together by experi- ence, a love of the music, self-belief and pio- neering. Ain’t that some package to bring it all back home? Best foot forward now.
www.rooksmererecords.co.uk Simon Jones
DENGUE FEVER Cannibal Courtship Concord 7232622
The fourth album from the world’s only Cambodian/Californian psychedelic rock band finds them mixing the exotic sounds of vintage Cambo pop with Cali surf music even more so than ever before. Long-time fans may moan about the increase in songs in English and it’s true that guitarist/founder Zac Holtzman takes the lead more often than on previous releases, but Chom Nimol’s strange and lovely voice still dominates and she doesn’t really sound like she’s singing in English, even when she is. Beside which, given that the DF sound is such a mongrel mixture in the first place (I hear jazz, African and even kraut-rock in there somewhere), it strikes me as a bit churlish to chastise them for lack of purity. No-one could call this stuff ‘mainstream’!
Nimol’s most straightforwardly Cambo- dian vocal performance is on the beguiling Uku, where it’s set against a backing of psychedelic blues (with a flute solo thrown in halfway through for good measure). Only A Friend reaches a transcendent pinnacle of impurity, with the band’s trademark fuzztone guitar and Farfisa organ mixing it up with David Ralicke’s multi-tracked jazzy sax, Nimol’s whooping vocals and a weird ‘n’ woozy “Beach Boys on bad drugs” refrain from Holtzman.
www.denguefevermusic.com
Jamie Renton Dengue Fever
BAYOU SECO Bayou Seco’s Bouquet Zerx ZERX080
What are people’s expectations from a Bayou Seco album? Mine are that there will be a wide range of musical traditions from the southern states of the USA presented with great skill, enthusiasm and with a deep understanding and empathy with the musics: Nothing to disappoint me here, then.
Jeanie McClerie has one of those voices that manages to augment and bring out the magic of all the songs in her vast repertoire whether she is singing in French, Spanish or, more frequently, in English. Her fiddle playing is a delight, never flashy but always bringing out beauty in melody, and there is a rare sym- pathy and close understanding in the way she plays alongside the multi-instrumental talents of Ken Keppeler – well, there ought to be by now; this album marks 30 years of their play- ing together. The fiddle and banjo playing on Texas is but one good example of this.
Ken and Jeanie’s extensive work in col- lecting from and playing alongside a wide range of traditional musicians from varied backgrounds is reflected in the songs and music heard here. They have delved into Cajun, fiddle tunes from Native Americans, songs and tunes from Spanish-speaking communities in and around New Mexico and cowboy songs. It is Ken that sings most of the items in this last-named category. His unaccompanied singing of Gol’ Darned Wheel really hits the mark and is much preferable to the growly voice that he adopts in a couple of other places.
There are few artists who bring such an understanding of and passion for the music they perform as this utterly admirable duo.
www.bayouseco.com Vic Smith ZÅR
Ensemble Shanbehzadeh & Mathieu Donarier Trio Buda 2763499
One minute in on track one, the buzzing, stri- dent Persian neyanbān bagpipe and percus- sion fade, giving way to Mathieu Donarier's sweet jazz clarinet. Briefly, it feels like an enforced musical regime change, but as this remarkable record progresses it becomes apparent that it is a far more honest collabo-
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