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Boulpik
BOULPIK Konpa Lakay Lusafrica 662252
From Haiti, with banjos. Oh, you need to know some- thing more…?
Anybody who loves old- style Caribbean (or Indian Ocean) Creole string bands will be blown away by this. Boulpik (aptly ‘hitting the bullseye’) are toubadou –
troubadours – whose music is honed from playing on the streets. So their two-banjo frontline evolved because those instruments are louder and cut through public bustle bet- ter than guitars. The bass line is provided by maniboula – like the Cuban/ Dominican marimbula, a cross between a bass mbira and cajon box that the players sit on (very ancient readers back to our Southern Rag days may remember a feature we did on these); the rhythm section a single hand drum and claves. Their music is what used to be called ti djaz (little jazz) made by rural acoustic bands, based on the popular Haitian konpa that evolved in the 1950s with a bit of influence from cuban son.
But if that sounds nice and folksy, don’t anticipate a dodgily-tuned field recording. Leader Franckel Sifranc has been doing this since 1980 and this six-piece line-up, put together in 2004 with younger musicians, is tight and professional – literally now, since there’s hardly any other way to make a living in their depleted country. Strong lead and harmony vocals, a joyously infectious groove, and excellent production that judiciously slips in a few guest musicians on accordeon, violin and electric guitar on a couple of tracks for variety, all add up to a wonderful album that’s easy to have on repeat play with the volume up for much feelgoodness.
They’d clean up at Womad! Are you reading this Paula?!
www.lusafrica.com Ian Anderson
NATALIE MERCHANT Natalie Merchant Nonesuch Pro400222
That voice. I mean, that voice. As soon as this one hit the trusty Dansette the washing machine screeched to a halt, Sam the cat pirou- etted in with a tray of cham- pagne on his head, the noisy chavs outside stopped
killing one other and a beatific tranquility descended on all mankind. Only Natalie Merchant can do this.
This is her sixth solo album since she dis- pensed with the 10,000 Maniacs safety net, her first of original material for thirteen years and, drawing on her often hidden soul- ful and bluesy streak, it is rather fine. Corliss Stafford almost steals the show belting out the most overtly gospel track, Go Down, Moses, while a grumbling Hammond organ pins down a chunky mix of strings, electric guitar and woodwind.
Rueful break-up songs mingle with philosophical themes of defiance, regret and self-preservation as chunky arrangements fit- fully blend into poignant beauty amid (snare drums and all) the bitter reflectiveness of Seven Deadly Sins (“I couldn’t spend me another night in the cold, cold bed of the butcher’s wife” – how’s that for an evocative line?); and, following a wonderfully incon- gruous jazz band intro, the cinematic narra- tive of Lulu that glides into a blissful orgy of strings. Merchant’s delivery, too, of the melancholia at the heart of Maggie Said makes it sound like the soundtrack to a heartbreaking movie that demands to be filmed immediately.
Moody brass decorates Black Sheep, a brooding rock heart beats within the doom- laden It’s A-Coming and, with its visage of dark and dangerous lands and treacherous seas, anyone in the habit of slashing their wrists while listening to music, will find the perfect finale in the classically-infused The End.
You worry about Natalie’s state of mind sometimes but her artistry remains formidable.
www.nataliemerchant.com Colin Irwin ANOUSHKA SHANKAR
Traces of You Deutsche Grammophon 479 1051
With Nitin Sawhney (programming, string arrangements, piano, bass guitar and more) acting as her right-hand man, Anoushka Shankar’s Traces Of You is a thoroughly mod- ern piece of work. Its opener, The Sun Won’t Set is a meditation on her father, co-composed by her and Sawhney. Her half-sister Norah Jones delivers the song, its lyric lightly punning on their father’s stage name. Ravi means ‘sun’. “The sun won’t set/Not now, not yet…” resur- faces periodically as a lyrical figure.
Traces Of You is a substantial work and all the better for being a walk on an emo-
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Photo: Thomas Simoens
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