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DALLA K5 Dalla Records DACD06
Among today’s foremost exponents of Cor- nish music, Dalla greatly impressed me with their fourth album Cribbar (fR 328). The title of its follow-up denotes ‘kabm pemp’, the Cornish five-step dance (although K5 could also imply a pinnacle of achievement loftier than K2!). The disc’s eleven tracks form an invigorating sequence, a proud mix of strong original but trad-inspired compositions and colourful treatments of purely traditional songs and tunes.
The band lineup has altered a little since
Cribbar, with core members Neil Davey (bouzouki, fiddle, mandolin), Hilary Coleman (vocals, clarinets) and Bec Applebee (vocals, percussion) now joined by Jen Dyer (viola, vocals) and Kyt Le Nen-Davey (accordeon, mandola, whistle) coming together to create a highly distinctive musical signature which pairs some resoundingly expressive playing with a really inventive blending of textures, colours and dynamics. Voices are occasionally used as instruments too, as on the opening reel Anthony Payne, where Kyt’s animated, vibrant accordeon melds especially well with the juicy timbre of the bass clarinet.
Dalla also unashamedly absorb musical influences from beyond Cornwall. There’s a definite middle-eastern ambience on Neil’s evocative tune Belong To Be, which arises so naturally out of Estren (The Stranger) and its galloping waltz rhythm. Kyt’s oud-like man- dola also introduces the album highlight Granite Is The Hardest Stone, which employs the eerie combination of low whistle (guests Jim Carey and Piers Lewin) and bass drum rumble counterpointing Hilary’s standout vocal performance of this fine Chris Leth- bridge song. There’s a mix of township jive and klezmer on the Rise And Shine/ Gorthrothy set (though I can’t quite place the Who reference mentioned in the liner note).
Elsewhere, the sheer vitality and enthusi- asm Dalla bring to their music is well dis- played on the central set of spirited ‘play- ground session’ jigs (where mandola shadows the viola’s driving rhythm while gaita bag- pipes – guest Will Coleman – and clarinet combine in a lusty backdrop), and the keen duet vocals on The Lark In The Morning, the latter ushering in an original tune by Kyt. Unexpectedly (though probably not surpris- ing considering the excellence of the preced- ing tracks), the strange tale of The Mermaid Of Zennor, though persuasively arranged in terms of vocal part-division involving spoken- word passages, and beautifully played and sung, just doesn’t seem to have quite the impact I suspect was intended.
K5 is a brilliantly consistent sequence, where the level of energy doesn’t flag for an instant – the penultimate (Lyonesse) set being particularly irresistible.
www.dalla.co.uk David Kidman
DARREN HAYMAN & THE SHORT PARLIAMENT Bugbears Fika Recordings Fika024CD
It was seeing this issue’s cover star, Billy Bragg, in the early 1990s that first inspired a then 17- year old Darren Hayman to pick up a guitar and start writing songs. Hefner, the group he founded in 1995, went on to become John Peel radio show favourites and, more recently, garnered a bit of topical notoriety for a track from their 2000 album, We Love The City enti- tled The Day That Thatcher Dies.
In recent years he’s come up with one of the all-time great band names (Darren Hay- man & the Secondary Modern) and released an ‘Essex Trilogy’, of albums, culminating in
last years The Violence, which concerned itself with the Matthew Hopkins witch trials during the English Civil Wars. Hayman’s research for that album then set him on the discovery of the 17th Century English songs that comprise Bugbear.
While the titles (Martin Said, Babylon
Has Fallen, I Live Not Where I Love and Bold Astrologer among them) will be familiar to Britfolkers, anyone hoping for something akin to a Strawhead [hugely popular late 20th Century folk club specialists at this repertoire, for any latecomers] album is in for a disappointment (and the rest of us should start paying attention).
Rather than relying on the many existing recordings of these songs by various folk stars (whom he cheerfully admits to having neither the background, audience or inclination to attempt to emulate), Hayman neatly side- steps the pitfalls of clichéd folk-rockery by setting his controls for the heart of the songs (with which he is clearly besotted) and, specifically, to the Vaughan Williams Memori- al Library at Cecil Sharp House where he received the enthusiastic support and assis- tance of librarian Malcolm Taylor.
Hayman himself states: “I wanted to make these versions bridges to the originals. Not fac- similes but echoes,” and the world-weary vocals and the sparse, indie-acoustic-eccentric musicianship of The Short Parliament situate Hayman somewhere between Robyn Hitchcock and a Thames Delta relative of Alasdair Roberts. This all adds up to a very good thing (unless, of course, you really were still hoping for something akin to a Strawhead album).
www.hefnet.com Steve Hunt CLANNAD
Christ Church Cathedral ARC Music EUCD 2441/EUDV00015
Clannad’s return to performing coincided with the return of Paul Brennan to complete the original line up. Christ Church Cathedral is a CD and DVD of a concert recorded at Dublin’s Christ Church Cathedral on January 29 2011 during the Temple Bar Trad Fest. Deliberately retrospective, Christ Church Cathedral charts Clannad’s musical develop- ment from their 1973 debut album Clannad to late ’90s material. Turlough O’Carolan’s gentle Eleanor Plunkett, the lonesome Coin- leach Glas an Fomhar and the incandescent Crann Ubhail reflect clean unvarnished purity while the harmonies on Dtigeas A Damhsa display sibling closeness. Moya Brennan’s voice still displays a serene purity while the workouts on Nil Se Na La and Dulaman are full-bodied jazz-based improvisations and the seismic shift to multi-layered electronica is navigated easily through Robin Of Sherwood and Newgrange. Reconnecting with their inspirational roots, Christ Church Cathedral is both a subtle voyage of artistic rediscovery.
www.arcmusic.co.uk www.clannadmusic.ie
John O’Regan VARIOUS ARTISTS
Afro-Beat Airways 2 – Return Flight to Ghana 1974-1983 Analog Africa AACD 074
Continuing the story from Vol 1, here’s a sec- ond instalment of highly recherché historic Ghanaian funk/afrobeat, thirteen tracks that you almost certainly won’t have heard before, all bound for death or glory on the dance floor. Compiler Samy Ben Redjeb has turned to many of the same artists he pre- sented on Vol 1 – Uppers International, De Frank, African Brothers, Rob, K Frimpong and Ebo Taylor among them. The common factor
K. Frimpong: Afrobeat Airman
is thrust. Don’t come looking for rolling chord changes or unfolding melodies, and don’t worry too much about weedy vocals and cheesy organs. Never mind who’s in tune and who isn’t: this is pretty hard-core material for esoteric groove enthusiasts who know what they like, and they don’t care. And to be fair, there are irresistible tracks – if anything could make you a slave to rhythm, K Frimpong’s quite delicate Abrabo is probably it.
One thing we can all enjoy is the fat 44- page booklet that comes with the CD. Brilliant photos, plentiful anecdote, a whole subculture peeled back to enjoy.
analogafrica.com Rick Sanders
SIMON THACKER’S SVARA-KANTI Rakshasa Slap The Moon STMRCD02
Simon Thacker’s Svara-Kanti is a quartet com- prising Japjit Kaur on vocals, Sarvar Sabri on tabla, Jacqueline Shave on violin, and Simon Thacker on classical guitar, violin – and on the title track – multi-tracked backwards and for- wards guitar, tabla, waterphone and Tibetan singing bowls. Rakshasa is (a) the ensemble’s debut; (b) a Thacker solo extravaganza; and (c) a supernatural being in Hindu and Buddhist scriptures. The ones in (c) have a propensity for interventionist tendencies for ill or good, dependent on the particular tribe of Rak- shasas, but mostly rely on that order. The commonality is energy.
That is what Rakshasa has in abundance. Another quality it has in abundance is its abil- ity to wrong-foot expectations and spring surprises. Its core musical fabric is spun from art music influences from the South Asian subcontinent, a little from the Far East and a pleasing amount from contemporary West- ern classical elements. The best exemplar for that last category is the US composer Terry Riley’s SwarAmant for guitar, violin and tabla, a nuanced composition to compete with Riley’s 2004 composition, The Cusp Of Magic that the Kronos Quartet and the pipa player Wu Man recorded.
In other news, Thacker’s “reimagined” Three Punjabi Folksongs – a major vehicle for their vocalist – nurtures Punjab’s folksong earth. With remarkable confidence Japjit Kaur tackles two songs selected by Thacker from the female folksinger of recent times (and naturally sometime playback singer) Surinder Kaur’s repertoire, with some
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