57 f VARIOUS ARTISTS


Kenya Special: Selected East African Recordings From The 1970s and ‘80s Soundway SNDW 046


Another mighty slab of music history fun from Soundway, this time focusing for a change on East Africa rather than West. It’s a handsome package with lots of words and pictures to accompany the music – including an enlightening and scholarly essay by Doug Paterson, guiding force behind the last few years’ East African re-releases from Stern’s, and detailed insights into each individual track from Emmanuel Mwendwa. You get the big view and the close-up.


But mainly you get some enthralling music from a particularly vibrant time for the live band scene. Rather than nail itself to some unifying theme, this compilation con- trarily aims to assemble a two-CD mix of the oddball, the one-off, the left field, the stone the builders rejected. This in itself is a great start – tedium clearly being an unlikely option with such a brief – what you get is a cascade of great singles each with something glorious or otherwise special about them. A good part of the variety derives from taking local rhythms and rocking them up with more or less faith- fulness to source – with such an organic back- bone, and a leavening of gentle pop tracks, and benga prominent, the dreaded categori- sations of modern Afro-musicology have nowhere to grip. This stuff here is just too alive, multifarious and wriggling.


Some names: well, D O Misiani is known, but who has heard of the Huruma Boys Band, the Gatanga Boys Band, the Famous Nyahu- ruru Boys and particularly The Eagles Lupopo, who pop up on several occasions? Good enough to wake up your tired breakfast. Bril- liant bands, brilliant collection.


www.soundwayrecords.com Rick Sanders


THE FALSE BEARDS Ankle Ghosts From The Basement GFTB7047


The False Beards are Ben Mandelson (man- dolin, baritone bouzouki) and Ian Anderson (vocals, guitar) self-proclaimed exponents of ‘Old time English psych folk blues world twangery’, a hugely appealing string-band sound, honed through decades of endeav- our among the ranks of Orchestre Super Moth, 3 Mustaphas 3, The Haringey Modal Rounders, The Yiddish Twist Orchestra, Hot Vultures, and a host of other equally unlike- ly-sounding combos.


The long years of gigging are evident in the easy flow of this (studio effects-free) recording, which really does sound like the chaps are sitting just a few feet away from you. Drawn largely from the tried and trusted Anderson repertoire, no fewer than seven of the songs have previously featured on various of his albums between 1972 and 2008.


Listening to these new versions, it’s apparent that (like many a bloke singer) his voice has developed a warmer tone. It suits him, as does the slightly less frenetic pace of delivery. Mandelson’s understated genius lies in his ability to seamlessly weave musical threads from here, there and everywhere (a Congolese seben on A Sign Of The Times, a Greek-style mandolin through Paint It, Black) and make them sound like the most natural thing in the world. When the pair really lock- in and let-fly (and they do, frequently,) it’s exciting, uplifting stuff, which sounds both familiar and unlike anyone else.


Musical inspirations are both subtly and explicitly referenced and acknowledged throughout. There’s a welcome rendition of Derroll Adams’ The Sky, while The Panic Is On motors along in an irresistible Koerner, Ray &


Glover fashion, and The Spring of ‘65 was acquired via John Cohen of The New Lost City Ramblers. (Perhaps) more surprisingly, a 1996 song by Californian rockers Cake gets mixed- up with a traditional tune from Guinea, to mesmerising effect. Anderson’s never been able to resist a good musical pun, hence Oscar’s is an amalgamation of The Bristol Hornpipe, from East Anglian melodeon play- er Oscar Woods, and Lone Wolf Blues, by Louisiana guitarist Oscar Woods...


Katie Rose guests with attention-grabbing


lead vocals on The False Bride and Lord Allen- water. Both songs were collected (by Cecil Sharp and Ralph Vaughan Williams, respec- tively) from Anderson ancestors, suggesting the continuing existence of a ‘folk singer gene’ among the population of Somerset levels.


Packaged in a striking cover depicting the pair as finger-snappin’ skeletons in some Día de Muertos Folk Cellar scene, and with typically self-deprecating sleevenotes, Ankle is the work of a modestly virtuosic duo, blessed with a vast musical literacy and the good kind of slight eccentricity. Whether they have either the time or inclination to really pull their fingers out and follow this with an album of all-new material remains to be seen, but this one will do just fine, either way.


www.thefalsebeards.com Steve Hunt


DIZRAELI & THE SMALL GODS


Moving In The Dark ECC010


There’s a fairly obvious correlation between folk song and rap. Both forms are almost exclusively reliant on storytelling, using what- ever instruments are at easy disposal – largely the human voice – to give the people creative expression. The mode and perhaps intent of this expression may appear diametrically opposed and intimidatingly alien, but there are sufficient parallels to attract notions of fusion. Over four decades ago, folk-rock inno- vators Mr Fox recorded Aunt Lucy Broad- wood, long before the term rap was even a twinkle in the Sugarhill Gang’s hippety hop- pety eyes and more recently we’ve had the likes of Boat Band and Dan Le Sac versus Scroobius Pip exploring the common ground between the genres, not to mention high pro- file recordings from Benjamin Zephaniah re- working Tam Lyn with Imagined Village; and Bubbz blazing out Lucy Wan with Jim Moray.


None, however, was quite as extraordi- nary as the combination – in concert at Lon- don’s Cecil Sharp House last year – of Chris


Dizraeli & The Small Gods


Wood and the English rapper Dizraeli, when the commonality between folk and hip hop was laid out with natural clarity and exhila- ratingly celebrated.


There’s no Chris Wood here on Dizraeli’s first album with his versatile band, the Small Gods, but the folk influence is very strong and quickly explored in full on the second track, Was A Rapper, an attractive blend of beatbox and scratching with hammered dul- cimer and flute behind a brutal modern morality tale overflowing with many of the ingredients of a cracking traditional ballad.


Elsewhere Dizraeli gives us colourful soundbites and vivid vignettes on the subjects of sex, ego, fame, death, drugs, break-ups and the daily fears and frustrations compli- cating daily life in what he himself describes as “a folked, melodic, unashamedly heartfelt reinvention of hip hop”. Even on anger over- load it’s hip hop at its most approachable – even more so than its most obvious reference point, The Streets. The unthreatening clarity of Dizraeli’s delivery has much to do with this, though a lot of it is also down to the widely contrasting moodscapes painted around him by the warmth of his band, the Small Gods. At one point Nathan Feddo’s meandering bass lines give White Rum the feel of a smoky jazz joint and Paul Gregory’s free-form drum- ming presents an edgy avant garde air to the otherwise oddly charming Trick Of The Mood. The supporting vocals of Cate Ferris also play a significant role mellowing out the beats and we even get bagpipes on There Is A Way, another overtly folkie track, though this is less successful, the close harmony vocal inflec- tions for once suggesting contrivance rather than natural expression.


Despite this, the album’s stylistic fusions mostly sound both promisingly fresh and completely obvious. It would be lovely – not to mention healthy – to see Dizraeli’s bold enterprise firmly embraced by the broader folk world.


www.dizraeli.com Colin Irwin CHUMBAWAMBA


In Memoriam: Margaret Thatcher No label, no cat no


They were gone, but they returned for one long-promised parting shot for the Wicked Witch. Those who’d paid their fiver would receive their copy of this EP (recorded and pressed several years ago) the day after Mag- gie’s farm closed. It’s seven short tracks of shreds and patches, a few sounds clips.


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