67 f For all the musical fireworks on show
however, what impresses most is Dobson’s glorious voice. Born in 1940 (you do the maths) she possesses an extraordinarily potent instrument, whether soaring on the unaccompanied Dink’s Song, driving the band through V’La L’Bon Vent, storytelling in the stately ballad Peter Amberley, or melting hearts of stone on Rainy Windows.
Much more than an exercise in long overdue dues-paying, this is an exhilarating album made with loving care by performers of the very highest calibre.
www.hornbeamrecordings.com Steve Hunt
DUB COLOSSUS Addis To Omega Echomaster EM002
The latest from former Transglobal Under- ground / Temple of Sound man Nick Page aka Dubulah’s Dub Colossus project is an appealingly quirky and socially conscious mix of dub reggae, jazz, Ethiopian and other global sounds, recorded in the UK, Spain and France and featuring core DC members Nick Van Gelder (drums), bassist Winston Blissett, keyboard player Toby Mills plus the Horns Of Negus brass section augmented by various guests.
The soulfully toned PJ Higgins takes the
lion’s share of the vocals, but there’s also room for Dubulah’s old TGU bandmate Nat- acha Atlas (on the excellent The Shape of Things to Come), former Steel Pulse / Reggae Philharmonic Orchestra person Mykael S Reil- ly, Yat-Kha main-man Albert Kuvezin (who lends his extraordinary quarter-tone vocals to A Voice Has Power) and veteran UK reggae toaster Joseph Cotton. Which should give some idea of the freewheeling range of what’s on offer on an album that also fea- tures Afro-blues guitarist Justin Adams and Asian Dub Foundation’s Dr Das on bass.
The deep easy roll of dub pervades everything here, but is tempered with Dubu- lah’s righteous anger at the rancid mess cre- ated by those who rule our lives. So Family Man sticks it to our PM, We Are the Play- things of the Rich and Famous is self- explanatory and Madmen offers a well aimed update of Funboy Three’s The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum.
Addis To Omega may not have the clear focus of Dub Colossus’s previous Ethiopia- meets-dub releases, but that openness brings its own rewards and there’s more than enough to get your teeth into here, if you’re prepared to go with the attractive flow.
www.dubcolossus.org Jamie Renton
MELINGO LinyeraWorld Village WV479089
Daniel Melingo – conservatory-trained multi- instrumentalist (guitar, clarinet, piano, vibra- phone), singer, actor, whistler, all-around raconteur of the tango-milonga eccentric – performs a Buenos Aires (porteño) water- front lowlife pirouetting in the deeper shad- ows of Argentine history, allied in spirit with companion chroniclers of capitalist dystopia like Tom Zé, Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, Tom Waits. Aestheticising dissolution is a high- wire act, but Melingo is without pretence in his homage to Chilean singer-songwriter Vio- leta Parra, a tender rendition of her timeless Volver A Los Diecisiete (To Be Seventeen Again): “To be seventeen again, after living a century, is like deciphering signs in the absence of wisdom, to be suddenly as fleet- ing as a moment in time, once again to feel deeply like a child before the divine…”
SIA TOLNO African Woman Lusafrica 662952
Strong singer originally from Guinea but raised in Sierra Leone rides the Afrobeat / funk express, as stoked by Fela’s long-time drummer and musical director, producer Tony Allen. Allen comes with a guarantee of power, groove and meticulous tightness. But does it suit the singer? Putting vocals onto funk and Afrobeat can all too often seem just like that – adding a top dressing of vocal interest to the real meat, which is the instru- mental stuff. Sia strives to hold her own with protestations and righteous advice, but too often there isn’t much for her voice to get hold of – and it has to be said there isn’t much sense of metre or phrasing to her lyrics. Her voice isn’t slinky or sly, it doesn’t play with the beat. With help from songs with melody, she’s more convincing. But she labours when dance-floor credibility seems to be the one aimed-for thing.
www.lusafrica.com Melingo
Melingo’s rendition of Argentine folk master Atahualpa Yupanqui’s Soneto Para Daniel Reguera poses the question, “If a troubadour were to request a bit of light in his life, for his smouldering heart I would offer the jungle entire aflame.” His choice of the poetic fragment Después De Pasar (The Passing Past) is central to his spectral sensibili- ty. It comes from Federico García Lorca’s Poema Del Cante Jondo: Poema De La Sigu- iriya Gitana, the poet’s reflection upon the gypsy siguiriya as the backbone of Andalu- sian deep song, ever beginning with a cry, the singer enchanted by a distant point on the horizon, and the sudden awareness – night blind with the quenching of tapers under a nocturnal sky – that the song’s celestial spiral of pain and longing are followed by silence, and the fading object of desire. Linyera is a lunfardo (porteño street argot) term for the vagabond wanderer, anyone without prospects and, one might venture, the toiling majority for whom a footloose fate is one unforeseen tragedy away. And so, destiny’s dominion is the linyera’s as much as our own.
worldvillagemusic.com Michael Stone VARIOUS ARTISTS
Rhythm ’n’ Bluesin’: Rompin’ & Stompin’ Ace CDCHD 1388
VARIOUS ARTISTS Swamp Pop By The Bayou Ace CDCHD 1397
Ace’s well-annotated series of reissues from the Louisiana-based label’s 1950s / 1960s releases continues with volumes six and seven respectively. If your budget doesn’t permit the purchase of both, go with volume six, which documents experienced black musi- cians who grew up in blues, jazz, and R&B. The artists are mostly obscure and undeser - vedly forgotten; only Lonesome Sundown and Katie Webster are likely to be immedi- ately familiar. While certainly enjoyable, vol- ume seven raises the question of whether ‘swamp pop’ deserves its special designation. From the evidence here, it’s mostly young white guys trying to sound like older black guys – in other words pretty much what non- Louisiana rock’n’roll amounted to, too. The best cuts are the rare ones that link rhythm to country music: Frankie Lowrie’s hillbilly medi- tation She’s Walking Toward Me and Johnnie Allan’s rockabilly folk ballad The Convict And The Rose.
www.acerecords.com Jerome Clark Rick Sanders
CROSSHARBOUR Crossharbour Higlet Recordings HGR 142
CHERRYGROVE No Time Like Now Own Label CGRCD 01
Two debut albums from hotshot new bands. Crossharbour combines the talents of serious UK tradbusters Phillipe Barnes, fiddler Sam Proctor and flautist Orlath McAuliffe. Their sound captures the brio of early Solas with the rhythmical complexity of Lúnasa and the wild- ness of vintage Altan. Musically it’s a subtle brew headlined by eloquent fiddle and flute pulsings backed with a solid-bottomed rhythm section. Chicago with its changes from Altan- like ensemble work to jazz-inflected turns both compels and delights and Trigonometry initially hits at Flook’s breathy woodshed style but the emphasis is not on super-clever as Tur- bulence flakes away in straight traditional manner. Vocalist Rosie Hodgson possessrd a detached yet emotional vocal approach that allows easy crossover from traditional to con- temporary material. Wedding Dress is a nicely poised pacy opener with Hodgson’s ethereal vocal floating over a simmering pot. Likewise Blackwaterside and her own Need Not Declare and Path Into The Woods show immense lyri- cal promise and subdued delivery. Subtlety is Crossharbour’s password and their calm, col- lected demeanour neatly covers the bubbling rhythmic stew underneath.
www.crossharbourmusic.com
Cherrygrove is a new Scottish band com- prising former students of the National Cen- tre of Excellence in Traditional Music and a finalist in the BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year 2013. They have already played at the London 2012 Olympics and Lorient’s Festi- val Interceltique. A five-piece with four female members the sound is fresh, vibrant and energetic. Musically, on Osmosis and Wild One, they have the blaze of Capercaillie with frisky accordeon and fiddle pyrotech- nics, while laced with the studied electroharp on Nahatlatch betraying a Poozies homage, the fire and pitch intact. Vocally Marianne Fraser impresses out front. The selection includes American old-timey material like Ain’t No Grave which is given a suitably goth- ic treatment with big gospel harmonies and there’s a dramatic take on Nickel Creek’s Jeal- ous Of The Moon. Original songs by Rachel Walker and Marianne Frazer hint at immense possibilities. The collective punch is one that impresses mightily and kicks out the jams with finesse and energy – worth watching,
www.cherrygrovemusic.com John O’Regan
Photo: Judith Burrows
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