93 f TEMENIK ELECTRIC
Ouesh Hada? Nomad Café Productions NCP27371
Marseilles has long been known as a hotbed of North African culture in France, with many French-Arabic subcultures having their gene- sis in the city. It’s not surprising, then, that a band such as Temenik Electric would flourish in such an environment.
With members from France and across
North Africa, Temenik Electric create Maghrebi rock, but go much further than the sounds of pioneer Rachid Taha, or more recent groups such as Speed Caravan, by using elements of electronica, dub and blues together with many distinct North African styles from Algerian raï to Hassani music of the Western Sahara to cre- ate an intense but body-moving piece of work.
Although often described as ‘electric gnawa,’ the music of Ouesh Hada? does not contain too many obvious elements of the Afro-Moroccan style; there are no guimbri lutes, and rarely the sound of the metal cas- tanets, the krakeb. However, the album’s loping rhythms and extended sections of repetition can put you into a semi-trance before you fully realise what’s happened, and really do create the essence of gnawa that pervades each track. Despite the use of oud, nay, heavily distorted guitars, all man- ner of synths, and some deep percussion- scapes, the gnawa infusion feels perfectly natural – a testament to the musicians who create such a nuanced style.
Ouesh Hada? is an outstanding album: perfect to rock out to, but also to lose your- self in. Play loud and fall into the groove of Temenik Electric!
www.temenikelectric.com Jim Hickson COUNTRY JOE BAND
Entertainment Is My Business Secret Records 450029
Entertainment Is My Business is a two-CD / one- DVD live set recorded on the Country Joe Band’s UK tour in June 2004. The Country Joe Band at Southsea’s Parade Pier on Hampshire’s coast features the core Country Joe and the Fish that made Electric Music For The Mind And Body and I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die – minus their original lead guitarist, Barry Melton. In the bonus DVD interview with McDonald diplomatically draws a veil over the “complica- tions” of getting the full quintet back together.
So, the band here comprises Bruce Barthol on electric bass guitar, harmonica and vocals (notably Cakewalk To Baghdad), origi- nal keyboardist and Happy Traum’s Home- spun Tapes guitar tutor, David Bennett Cohen and drummer, Gary ‘Chicken’ Hirsh. McDon- ald plays electric guitar, carnival trombone (on I Feel Like I’m Fixing To Die) and handles most of the lead vocals. Over the long haul less tolerant listeners might find his über- Bellamy bleat-twang intrusively mannered. Still, that’s what mental auditory filters are for. Just take the ride.
This is arguably the most psychedelic of the San Francisco Bay area’s bands of the 1960s revisiting its core material and doing it superbly with a Berkeley ambience that generates a nostalgia for something never experienced. Still, why might this music interest readers beyond the cognoscenti and converts for whom their blend of political nous and psychotropic music meant any- thing? Well, they remain highly politicised. Their name alluded to Uncle Joe Stalin and Mao Zedong. They played around with jug- band music, red diaper politics, some of the most piercing harmonica ever recorded (Sec- tion 43), their anti-Vietnam War and Eisen- hower fears of the military-industrial com-
Temenik Electric
plex (Fixin’…), and transferrable Woody Guthrie update-ability (This Land Is Your Land). No other group had the wit to pull off, pre-Nonesuch Explorer, transferring koto to guitar (Who Am I) (McDonald had been in Japan serving with the US Navy).
Interestingly, McDonald reveals in the DVD interview that Section 43, the track that accompanied so many psychedelic explorations – mine included – pre-dated him getting psychedelicised. This is way bet- ter than nostalgia.
www.secretrecordslimited.com Ken Hunt
MALINKY Far Better Days Malinky Music MM001
Any one of these eleven tracks, sung in Cale- donian-accented English, would slot easily into the playlist of BBC Radio Nan Gaidheal or similar stations amenable to the folklore- inspired repertoire of Far Better Days (with the borderline exception of The Wild Geese – poet Violet Jacob’s words set to fellow Angus local Jim Reid’s music). Indeed, the copious booklet notes are a feat of scholarship and research that is as impressive in its way as the disc’s vocal and instrumental entertainment which ranges from the jigging joie de vivre of The Brisk Young Lad to mordant and homici- dal Son David with its harmonium drone, courtesy of producer (and Capercaillie main- stay) Donald Shaw.
While the arrangements are proficient and the shared singing – particularly that of Fiona Hunter – often inspired, there could have been more understatement here and there, although perhaps in live performance the fusion of The Moss O’ Barreldale, Robert Burns’s Lady Mary Ann and The Humours Of Glendari has the potential to be industrial- strength drinking music.
Scandinavian in origin and translated into robust dialect, The Twa Sisters, a far bet- ter-known murder ballad than Son David, is perhaps more typical – though still much in keeping with the overall intention to make the familiar different from any other version. Nonetheless, this fifth release by these rela- tively youthful exponents (and now interna- tional ambassadors) of Scottish song repre- sents consolidation rather than development of an established style – and, as such, their long-time consumers will enjoy the sonic equivalent of receiving a much anticipated birthday present.
www.malinky.com Alan Clayson
CHARTWELL DUTIRO & MIKE PARNELL Mbira Korositina Ingoma 0634041631895
This is just lovely!
Inspired by the music of ZImbabwe and reviving the Shona concertina tradition, Zim- babwean Chartwell and English Mike have created a captivating modern combination of mbira, voice, concertina and percussion here which celebrates a diversity of musical and dance styles – from Shona songs to mbende dances and complex, polyrhythmic interlock- ing vocals as well as an Irish jig (with extra mbira and satire!).
This is a complementary blend, rather than a forced fusion, with two musicians who feel like kindred spirits. Chartwell Dutiro is a musician, teacher and artistic director of Mhararano Mbira Academy at Dartington Trust, Totnes, where Mike has been learning mbira for the last five years (though was inspired by the Irish tradition to play concer - tina back in the 70s.)
The concertina of course played a part in Shona traditions (with the arrival of mission- aries and colonists in the region). Its sweet- toned repetitive melodic lines provide a brightness to the loping, trancelike mbira lines. Together they interweave Shona vocal harmonies as well as instrumental strands, and it is a sympathetic and spirit-lifting com- bination. Highly recommended.
www.mbirakorositina.madefreshly.com Sarah Coxson MARY FLOWER
When My Bluebird Sings Bluesette Records BR-CD-400
It has been a while since I listened to Mary Flower. My mistake, as this solo offering by the Portland, Oregon, resident is an out- standing recording. Mary sings and plays the blues in quite a delicate way offering a record just about equally split between all original songs and tunes. Her songs are top class. Opening cut So Far Doin’ Alright sets the recording up nicely. Gently paced with solid fingerstyle guitar, stops in all the right places, and even a Rodgersesque yodel. Can’t Take It With You could, if heard by the right people, become a standard in many genres. Flower’s singing voice puts me in mind of Alice Ger- rard, more so on Delta Dream, Flower’s won- derfully constructed reminiscence of Louisiana. Of the guitar instrumentals, on slide Suspendimento catches attention, as
Photo: Jean de Peña
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