59 f


The second half of the record introduces Etno Rom, and their collection of music from across the continents, tunes ancient and mod- ern played to within an inch of their very live- ly lives, sung with tough imploring by Tünde Küsztler, and with incantatory grace by renowned oral bass Istvan Balog. Korkorro, the final track, is a swoon of such vocals, almost fading out, until suddenly stormed back into life by this innovative and trans- porting encounter.


www.fremeaux.com John Pheby


VARIOUS ARTISTS Afro Soul #2 Buda 3771736


Thoroughly varied, often quite wild, here’s a kitchen-sink anthology of modern afro-soul music which turns out to contain traces of nearly every music you every heard, all put through the blender. Reggae, hip hop, afrobeat, even brass bands. The artists are from Cameroon, Tanzania, the UK, Mali, Burkina-Faso, France, Algeria, Kenya, Togo, Guadeloupe, Morocco and South Africa.


Sometimes tracks seem to hark back to old tradition only to blast into a thoroughly modern groove. Others make sense of out- landish contracts – for example, a North African gnawa-ish opening on lute leads to a growling guitar rhythm and smooth harmony version of Elvis’s It’s Now Or Never. The delight is sustained by the contrast between Rachid Taha’s moody Arabic vocals and Jeanne Added’s straight-up Western tones. Most tracks are hyper-busy and up. Some are just works of haunting beauty – the closer, N¦uu from Cape Town Effects, has real poise, sus- pense and sweep. It pays tribute to the van- ishing San people of the Kalahari, yet sonical- ly it could feature as a welcome-to-your-flight advert for Air France. Invigorating, as is all the expertly-assembled album. Expectations may be disrupted, but Interest will not flag.


www.budamusique.com Rick Sanders


ANDY WHITE How Things Are Floating World FW039


If a poet's going to deliver a separation album then I'd like to think Andy White's got it right on the money. How Things Are is a separation album. Andy White is a poet, albeit one who plays guitar. With minimal vitriol, spite or even anger, he reflects sadly on closing a chapter and the maybes of another yet to come. It’s an album which raises questions, sometimes posed directly by the performer and some- times in the mind of the listener. “Everyone's in love with someone else today / you catch hold of a dream then you gotta throw it away,” he croons, like it’s some kind of casual observation. Elsewhere the closest we get to hurt comes with lines like “you were standing outside looking at me like everything between us had died,” or “I'm living life in a brand new hell.” Ouch! Though even by the close of that track he’s calmer, “you were the closest thing to Heaven in my heart”.


How Things Are is straight from the


man’s core, recorded direct as an arrow with minimal help beyond his son on drums, and a one woman string section. Given that such circumstances can craft the roustabout Driftin’ or the more tender Band Of Gold / All It Does Is Rain in which the mirror he holds to past behaviour shows nothing but missed signposts pointing in the direction of sever- ance, he can allow a rueful smile.


Yet as the final track spins into view, after a mixture of soft core folk jangling and bouncy, bopalong rock, White at least changes tack and raises a curious eyebrow


with Who Said We're Gonna Get Another Lennon? If it isn’t going to be him, then a cynical eye is cast over the competition: “Has anyone here seen Dylan?”


Whether the next firebrand is going to be a reawakened Andy White isn’t clear, we can but hope.


While he’s deciding you can join in his philosophical contemplation, then wish him well. He’s a brave man putting his emotions, if not on the line, at least out in the open for all to share.


www.andywhite.com Simon Jones


MEGSON In A Box EDJ Records EDJ019


The ever-youthful Stu and Debbie Hanna continue steadfastly to carry the folk tradi- tion forward on In A Box, the sixth Megson studio album. It comes after a four-year gap during which they’ve been further fine-tun- ing their craft and reaching ever wider audi- ences with their lively performances. Though latterly based in Cambridgeshire, Megson continually specialise in unearthing songs from the north-east which mostly seem to have passed unnoticed even in the current, often exhaustive, resurgence of interest in folksong, and almost always richly deserve our attention. Even the most familiar of the current batch, Still I Love Him, is here trawled from a rarely-heard version of the song found in the east coast’s fishing communi- ties, and provides an affecting new take on the over-familiar ballad.


Megson’s takes on traditional song are typically stimulating and vibrant, whether in jocular vein (the 19th Century Tyneside song Bet Beesley And Her Wooden Man) or in stark expression of a broadside lament (Clifton Hall Mine). But Megson have another ace to play, for the duo’s own original compositions easily stand comparison with their traditional coun- terparts in their canny portrayal of personal life milestones, universal events and regional occurrences. Arguably the finest of them are the tender, brilliantly-observed title song (which, appropriately, closes the album), the dynamic narrative of Moses Carpenter (a Mohawk Indian who brought a travelling medicine show to Middlesbrough in 1859), and The River Never Dies, which chronicles events affecting the River Tees from the ’40s


Megson


IMED ALIBI SafarWayward/IRL079


Imed Alibi is a stalwart of the French - North African music scene with previous credits including, amongst others, Les Boukakes. For this project he’s teamed up with renowned Tunisian violinist Zied Zouari and French com- poser Stephane Puech.


The result is Safar, an undeniably ambi- tious and, in places, very stirring record which defies easy definition. Classical Middle East- ern influences sit alongside rock overtones, electronica, jazz brass and horn sections. The record comes with lofty ambitions – seeking to do nothing short of redefine the musical contours of the Arab world.


At its best Safar sounds like film music. The kind that could do for Arab music what Tan Dun did for the classical Chinese sound. At its worst however the record reeks of shal- low orientalism and the kind of ‘world music’ epitomised by Café del Mar.


That’s not to say that the music isn’t com- pelling. The bold orchestration of Fanfare d’Alexandrie, for example, is undeniably good and there are flurries elsewhere, such as the lute/violin duel on Nafass. A major issue


to the ’90s, exploring the bond that exists between communities and the waterway by which they dwell. The comforting Songs To Soothe A Tired Heart provides another mem- orable moment.


On the other hand, maybe the impact of some of these songs suffers just a touch from the prominent glottal stop in the delivery. Even so, there can be no complaint about the intensely assured singing and playing that are a hallmark of Megson performances, with deftly deployed instrumentation (Stu’s guitar, bass, mandolin, octave mandola and Debbie’s accordeon and whistle) the perfect foil for the pair’s responsive vocal treatments, all neatly wrapped up in Stu’s crisp and incisive in-house production.


www.megsonmusic.co.uk David Kidman


DON CHERRY Organic Music Society Caprice CAP 21827


If the house were on fire and I had to grab ten jazz CDs, one of the first five would be Don Cherry, Nana Vasconcelos and Collin Walcott’s The Codona Trilogy, recorded between 1978 and 1982. It was a portent of much of what was to come in world music when world music was still Weltmusik and not a marketing term. The recordings that make up this album pre- date the first album in the trilogy by a fair few years, logging in between 1971 and 1972.


In world music terms jazz preceded folk. One only has to look to John Mayer in Britain or Don Cherry in Scandinavia to get a measure of that. This reissue is a time capsule from 1972 from the latter philosopher-musician. Parts of the vocal texts are dated or pedestri- an (for example, whether within the song or outside it, “My friend, have you tried medita- tion?” from Relativity Suite Part 2). But Rela- tivity Suite Part 2 is also an early plea for faith and religious toleration. That apart, the music with its inflections of sarangi (Hans Isgren), mridangam and tabla (Bengt Berger) and berimbau (Nana Vasconcelos) stands up well beside, say, George Harrison’s Wonderwall or Don Ellis’ (later) high-blown Indo-jazz-rock excesses. John Corbett’s contextual notes are excellent. An important restoration to the world music catalogue. And an indication as to why Neneh Cherry is so open-minded.


www.capricerecords.se Ken Hunt


Photo: Elly Lucas


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