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Pete Brown, Burroughs, Ferlinghetti, Gins- berg and Adrian Mitchell. Many of spot’s tracks are concentrated miniatures under two minutes – the longest 2:43.

The album’s repertoire includes skipping rope-like ditties (schmafu), hyperventilating wheezy Austrian Volxmusik (söwa), the sing- songy electronic automatische, a wine tavern singalong on a Japanese theme (Japaner), a happy-go-lucky Binderism set to Glen Miller’s Little Brown Jug (i bin froh) and cool grooves (Leck mi o). Nobody speaks without an accent or a dialect of sorts. Attwenger’s Oberösterre- ich (Upper Austria) dialect is strong enough to flummox Bavarian’s ears, let alone this review- er’s ears attuned to northern German lan- guage forms. What communicates loud and clear is a glorious playfulness. It requires no blow-by-blow, word-for-word understanding of what is on the table – never mind the plate – to get Attwenger’s deliciously kooky music. Since their debut most in 1991, no Austrian act coming close to Attwenger’s idiosyncratic talents ever crossed my path. There was no need to go seeking: they are the tops.

http://attwenger.at Ken Hunt

MARIA SIMOGLOU ENSEMBLE

Rebetika Songs of Smyrna Buda Musique 860277

The Maria Simoglou Ensem- ble play rebetika songs of the Smyrna era. Right at the beginning of rebetika, the Smyrna style was favoured by Asia Minor refugees around the start of the 20th Century. By the 1940s Smyrna style had all but disappeared, giv-

ing way to a bouzouki-dominated virtuoso music which increasingly moved away from the old Ottoman modes and urban folk music and more towards ostentatious display. The instrumentation of Simoglou’s band show the diversity of sounds before bouzouki was king and include lyra, saz, spoons, kanonaki (dul- cimer) and a variety of flutes and instruments of the violin family. The sound they create is authentic (if you listen to the Folklyric 1911 to 1937 Oriental Rebetika recordings by way of comparison).

Female singers flourished in the Smyrna environment, whereas the other rebetika style of the time, the Piraeus style, was almost exclu- sively masculine music. Maria Simoglou does an excellent job of carrying the torch. Her florid, relaxed and expressive vocals are spot on.

The whole production job on this CD takes you away to another time and place to the birth of an urban folk music. The discreet accompaniments work perfectly at showcas- ing what was essentially an unaccompanied style of singing. When accompanied, the instrument usually doubled up with the voice or played a couple of root notes below the singer. Simoglou’s band do this so well that voice and instrument become one and it is often hard to tell where one finishes and the other takes over. In the instrumental pas- sages, when the whole band kicks in, there is an equality of sound with no single instru- ment dominating. The improvisational pas- sages (by band and voice) are neat extensions which fully support, extend and encourage the songs and, crucially, know exactly when to give way to the tune again.

This is an excellent CD, a good explo- ration of the roots of rebetika and a wonder- ful recreation of a musical beginning, taking you back to a Teke or café Aman, in Athens, at the start of the 20th Century.

www.budamusique.com Mark T Maria Simoglou

HILLFOLK NOIR Pop Songs For Elk Own Label No cat no

Any record that starts with a song entitled North Idaho Zombie Rag (Mix B) stands a good chance of attracting this listener’s attention. When that song declares itself with an almighty clatter of resonator guitar, a howl of bowed saw and just gets bet-

ter from there, it’s pretty much guaranteed. Hailing from Boise, Idaho, and fronted

by singer, songwriter and guitarist Travis Ward, Hillfolk Noir is a self-described “trio of neo-traditionalists, playing traditional music on traditional instruments for non-traditional times”. While they share some stylistic com- mon ground with contemporaries like Shov- els & Rope or Shakey Graves, the act which they most immediately and irresistibly remind me of is the Holy Modal Rounders.

Sure, there’s less musical anarchy here than in their 1960s forebears, but there’s a strongly similar element of playful subversion going on. It manifests in the Blues In The Bot- tle-referencing opening line of Gettin’ Late (“Rooster chews tobacco!”), affectionately messes with the conventions of traditional lyricism in Poor Man’s Love Song (“If I was a rich man, if I weren’t so poor… I’d give you a ring for your right hand, to match the one on your left hand…”) and climaxes in the back- wards-tape psych-out of Sniffing Glue Blues (a very HMR title!).

They’re a versatile bunch, tackling the talking blues of Woods On Fire and the jug band swing of Shimmy with easy authenticity, while Alison Ward’s pure country vocal on My Train is a highlight. Proper-job balladry arrives in a kick-ass version of Little Sadie which, pro- pelled by Ward’s banjo and Mike Waite’s dou- ble bass, morphs into Walking Boss (from which those aforementioned Rounders bor- rowed the tune for Bound To Lose).

Recorded live with skill, commitment

and wit, Pop Songs For Elk is a damn fine antidote to po-faced folkery and Hillfolk Noir are Cousin Country Cowfreak’s own comic- book moonshine jug band. Hallelujahgobble!

www.hillfolknoir.com Steve Hunt

TAHIR PALALI O M&MT Records CD0008

Tahir Palalı is a Turkish singer-songwriter living in London. His debut album O (which means she, he or it in Turkish – Turkish is quite radi- cally neutral about gender) includes contribu- tions from Erkan O˘gur (who co-produced, plays on two tracks and was a primary inspi- ration for the project) and Çi˘gdem Aslan (who sings on one track).

The songs are a mixture of traditional, self-penned and other writers’ songs. There’s a consistent, pared-back, acoustic approach to the arrangements and the album hangs together as a whole. It would fit well with Erkan O˘gur’s recordings for Kalan. Palalı sings gently in a warm and subtle voice. His tembur and kopuz (a kind of lute) playing is of a piece with his singing. The package is nicely done and the notes and lyrics are all in Turk- ish and English. The translations tend to Turk- lish but are clear enough. The lyrics are in a romantic Alevi tradition.

It’s a nice record. Balmy, pleasant, but also one-dimensional, and the songs rather blur into each other as both the singing and playing styles hardly vary. Rather a record for aficionados than for a wider audience I think. The songs are led by the lyrics rather than the performance and it means a non-Turkish speaker may struggle to connect with them.

www.tahirpalali.com Nick Hobbs

GILMORE ROBERTS Conflict Tourism GR! Records GRR006

Multiple award-nominees and a perennially stylish ‘hot property’ act, Katriona Gilmore and Jamie Roberts have latterly spent a whole year touring while at the same time writing a new batch of songs, which, it soon became apparent, tackle head-on the com- mon theme of conflict (notably our personal dramas and internal struggles and tensions) – to which they prove expert guides for the musical tourist.

The universality of the album theme is brought home strongly through its fresh and punchy contemporary sound, which is, I