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music, about as far as you could get from autotune, and that’s where the appeal lies. Once you’ve laid your objections aside – which may not be easy for some – there’s something marvellously indomitable about General Paolino and his music. Hailed as South Sudan’s Bob Marley, he sang and inspired spirits during Africa’s longest-running civil war – black South Sudan against the Ara- bic North. The titles here reflect a rebel stance and are intriguing – George Bush America, Too Many Lazy People and Why Have I Been Abused? for example. But to most of us the lyrics are going to be plain incomprehensible. With little in the way of communicable meaning to ease the passage, what you have left is about as simple and stripped-down as you’re going to find. Hints of pop, hints of calypso from a gravelly voice on the edge, possibly a little one over the eight – and a Spanish guitar, rarely in tune with itself – and a couple of songs from a bird-like singer called Mama Celina. All quite splendid, from the world’s newest nation, whose armed struggle was led by yet another General Paolino (who died last year).
Distribution via ProperMusic.
www.propermusic.com
Rick Sanders VARIOUS ARTISTS
Festival Au Desert: Live From Timbuktu, 12-ème Edition Clermont Music NY 12526 USA
Since its inception in 2001, Mali’s Festival in the Desert has been a fixture of the global music scene and a sounding board for a coun- try with incredible musical energy. This year however, darker energies have eclipsed the music – ongoing warfare between the Tuareg, Islamists, the Malian government and even French troops has rendered the festival un-runnable. It’s a low moment in Mali’s story and we hope the festival might return next year but, in the meantime, we have memories of festivals past.
Festival Au Desert is a great compilation of performances from 2012. Full of energy and expression, and also some haunting por- tents of gathering conflict, it is an essential listen for anyone with an interest in Mali’s music.
Featured are many of the country’s most famous musical exports like Samba Touré, Tartit, and Tinariwen, whose collaboration with Kiran Alhuwala – a stirring fusion of desert blues and Indian melodies – is a stand- out track. Likewise there are some lesser known artists here who are a nice surprise, Khaira Arby in particular springs to mind who on La Liberté is full of soul, funk and feeling.
Slightly more left-field tracks also pepper the record and give it vibrancy. Igbayen’s tra- ditional chant, Mohamed Alasho’s ecstatic flute and Douma Maiga Super Onze, which somehow sounds like spiders made of string, spring to mind. Also present throughout is the ghost of Ali Farka Touré, and this review- er counted at least two tracks which seem to rework the seminal Ai Du – the second, from Oumar Konate and Leila Gobi being especial- ly brilliant.
Other highlights include Habib Koite’s smooth vocal style, reminiscent of Mahmoud Ahmed, and the furious Odwa, whose song sounds like it can see a war coming.
Whilst there are some weak tracks on this compilation, overall the record is a sad reminder of what Mali is losing to the war. We can only hope that 2013 is an interlude not a trend and that collections like this don’t become a memorial to one of the world’s great music scenes.
www.clermontmusic.com Liam Thompson
DaWangGang
DAWANGANG Wild Tune Stray Rhythm Jaro 4312-2
Song Yuzhe, the man behind this extraordi- nary record, is a prod- uct of the ever-inven- tive Beijing under-
ground music scene, while the title comes from an expression used in Chinese opera to refer to music that is slightly out of tune and rhythm. So, it’s not surprising that much of this album has an uncomfortable feeling and is often taken in unusual and challenging directions. Stick with it though and it pays off.
There’s much roots music to discover, with powerful elements from the traditions of the Uyghurs of the Xinjiang autonomous region, Tibet, Mongolia and elsewhere. Song plays a variety of instruments, although for the most part we don’t know what they’re called, being credited as simply eight-string banjo, half-zither and mouth harp. We do know bandmates Hu Gejiletu from inner- Mongolia plays the morin khuur (horse head fiddle) and Adil from Xinjiang plays another type of fiddle, the ghejek.
It’s the way these instruments are used and incorporated into an experimental whole that defines this album. The twists and turns of the opening Meeting Two Wizards On The Mountain Road sets the tone; discordant morin khuur, an eerie theatrical half-spoken recital with throat singing behind it, and a cittern adding an almost medieval European feel. This sounds positively tuneful by the time we get to the eight-minute track three, Liberate No Man’s Land. A squeaky fiddle, a honking saxophone, bird caws and a howling wind blowing throughout. Elsewhere traces of Chinese opera mix with jaw’s harp, while Song’s vocals and instrumentation sound at times like a modern day Chinese version of Jethro Tull.
But don’t let that put you off too much. Buddhist chants, gentle female vocals, guqin (zither), sampled street and temple sounds combine beautifully on Money Gods before the epic final track, where much of what’s gone on before come together. The final five minutes of this, relentless, angry vocals that fade into the distance, end the album where it started. Uncomfortable and challenging.
Hear a track on this issue’s fRoots 44
compilation.
www.jaro.de
Paul Fisher
ALI MOHAMMED BIRRA Great Oromo Music Buda 860233
Number 28 in the much-loved Éthiopiques series, this is the rockiest, most garage of all so far. Recorded mostly in the mid-’70s, Ali Birra’s songs have demon energy, clatter and readiness to push everything as hard as possi- ble. The small group of bass, drums, guitar and organ is absolutely not cool, with tumul- tuous rhythms, raw reverb, and, most note- worthy, the Farfisa organist’s number one weapon. Time after time, he strikes a bur- bling slab-like chord and just clamps on to it – a minute and a half on one unvarying minor chord on the opening track. Awesome. Would take a crowbar to loose his grip.
Riding the waves, the undoubted star is Ali Birra. He is an Oromo, singing of love and pain – and, in metaphor, calling for the underdog Oromo people to rise up against the Amharic elite, as embodied in the person of Haile Selassie – not that their lot improved under the socialist revolution of 1974. More oppression, much passion, and a great voice to convey it. He is light, lithe and flirts with the edge of chaos. Although Birra comes from a Muslim culture, the intonation and phrasing is not particularly ‘Arabic’ – his vocals don’t stray far from Ethiopian models, though his rhythms are more straightforward, his melodic scales more open. Sometimes it’s almost like Stax.
And, for contrast, the album is rounded
off by three tracks from the ’60s, two of just Ali and guitar, roughly recorded and impres- sively monotonous, and one of him with the Imperial Bodyguard Band, with whom he first came to prominence. Fascinating.
www.budamusique.com Rick Sanders
GEORGIA RUTH Week Of Pines Gwymon CD019
As a songwriter, this Cambridge graduate and local radio broadcaster is known as Georgia Ruth Williams. The surname has been dropped for a debut album which features her as an adept fingerpicking harpist, with a voice pure and full-bodied. Her song materi- al, too, reads outstandingly well: traditional folk subjects couched in contemporary poet- ry. The CD booklet prints four of the eleven numbers, one in Welsh, interspersed with scenic photos.
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