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MORAGH Best Case Scenario Appel APR 1349
A Flemish sextet with their regular guest mix the songs written by their singer/guitarist Peter Ceulmans with Irish dance tunes. Leaving aside their treatment of Jock Stewart, the final track, just about every other aspect of the album is worthy of praise. Peter’s songs – writ- ten in English – are good listenable stuff and the singing, particularly when four band mem- bers sing in harmony, is very classy. The tight, well-arranged instrumentals show that they are all accomplished on their instruments.
Very enjoyable though this album is, there remains a feeling that Moragh are the sort of band that would best be seen live. It is certainly possible to imagine them bringing the house down at a wide range of summer festivals.
www.denappel.be Vic Smith
O’HOOLEY & TIDOW The Hum No Masters Cooperative NMCD41
The close-knit partnership of Belinda and Heidi has produced two of the more thought- provoking and challenging albums of recent years (Silent June and The Fragile), but The Hum is, if anything, even finer. Like its prede- cessors, it celebrates the positive qualities of the human spirit through the exploration of recurring themes like economic migration, the fragile eco-system and the place of nature within today’s world; all linked by a common thread – what might be termed the hum of humanity.
Eight of The Hum’s ten songs are origi- nals by Belinda and Heidi, and are typically shot through with intense compassion and uncompromising honesty, captivating the lis- tener as much by their poetic use of language as their stimulating ideas, their acute sense of history and genius loci. In a way, the album is comprised of a number of mini-sequences: the first three songs evidence the (compan- ionable) buzz of industry, taking into account its effect on (or correspondence with) the natural world, while Peculiar Brood and Like Horses both poignantly ruminate on specific aspects of warfare. Sometimes too, folk tradi- tion is directly referenced then meditated upon, for instance on Come Down From The Moor (an examination of how Ireland’s histo- ry of struggle and poverty connects with its music) and Summat’s Brewin’, which takes O Good Ale as springboard for a timely and upbeat reminder of the resurgence of the small brewery.
In complete contrast, there’s the more contemplative sensuality of the lilting Two Mothers (originally written for Jackie Oates’ Lullabies tour). The album concludes with a double dose of exotica: an exceptionally well- considered cover of Nic Jones’ Ruins By The Shore followed by Kitsune, a distinctly pow- erful and unsettling (and rather Lal Water- son-like) portrayal of forbidden love.
The exotic soundscape of this final track displays a significant difference between the sparse, chamber-like ambience of the duo’s earlier albums and that of The Hum courtesy of producer and skilled multi-instrumentalist Gerry Diver (best known for his work with Lisa Knapp and Sam Lee). The focus remains the special timbre of Belinda’s piano and the well matched (whether individually or har- monising) voices of Belinda and Heidi, but around these elements Gerry conjures some striking and extraordinary sounds from string, pedal steel, autoharp and guitar embellishments, inventive percussion touches and occasional electronica.
ohooleyandtidow.com David Kidman LA TALVERA
Cançons Del Cap Del Pont Cordae La Talvera TAL18
SILVIO PERON Eschandihà De Vita Own Label SP01
Occitan: “a family of Romance language spo- ken in southern France, Italy’s Occitan Valleys, Monaco, and Spain’s Val d’Aran”. Here are a couple of examples from the French and Ital- ian sectors.
To these ears, La Talvera are the bright- est star in the Occitan heavens. Some of their recent albums have seen them in collabora- tion with musicians from other minority cul- tures or working alongside the varied ethnic communities that make up Marseilles. This time they are firmly back to their roots with an album that focuses on the wide variety of items collected during his retirement by Gabriel Soulages (1838-1903), lawyer and one-time mayor of his town of Albi. The album reflects the collection’s wide scope with listening and dance songs, lullabies, chil- dren’s songs, and the compositions of local rustic songwriters.
The album has all the brightness, excite- ment and interest that typify all the previous La Talvera releases and, of course, the band has the pair who have made proselytising their culture their life’s work. Daniel Loddo’s multi-instrumental talents and deep under- standing of his tradition combined with the compelling voice of Céline Ricard make listen- ing to each and every one of their albums an exhilarating experience. A good design based around night-time photos of the Albi com- plete the enjoyment.
www.talvera.org
The sub-title of the other album is “Sto- ries of characters from the Occitan Valleys of Piedmont”. The eleven songs are written and the music arranged by Silvio who also con- tributes most of the singing, the diatonic accordeon and some percussion. The songs are all observations and commentaries on incidents and characters that he has met in his region over the years.
They come across as a lively and interest- ing bunch of songs though the language is likely to be inaccessible to most listeners and the booklet provides translations into stan- dard Italian. Inclusion of a fair number of tra- ditional dance tunes played after the songs helps a great deal and the singing and instru- ment playing is of a very high standard.
The seventeen musicians that contribute come from Bologna to Marseilles, the booklet tells us, and include names that will be
La Talvera
known to those with an interest in the Occi- tan and Italian traditions including Patrick Vaillant and Jan-Mari Carlotti. Two of the Piedmont’s best known musicians. Stefano Valla and Daniele Scurati, whose DVD was reviewed recently in these pages also con- tribute to this excellent album.
www.felmay.it Vic Smith VARIOUS ARTISTS
Songs Of Gastarbeiter Vol 1 Trikont LC 04270
In 1971 I was working as a Gastarbeiter (‘guest worker’) north of Hamburg in the print for one of West Germany’s foremost magazine firms. Most of the Gastarbeiter were Spanish or Turkish – with a poor sausage of a lone Basque Gastarbeiter who spoke neither Ger- man nor Spanish and whose beret-clad face is still as clear as clear can be in my head.
Within two decades the Turkish presence and diaspora would transform West Germany. In Hamburg’s red-light district, the infamous Reeperbahn, döner fast food places replaced earlier times’ kebab joints. Down the years, Berlin’s Kreuzberg and Neukölln districts became Kleintürkei (‘Little Turkey’). Turkey is Deutschland’s South Asian diaspora in British terms. A hoary old statistic but Berlin is the biggest Turkish city outside Turkey.
The tracks on Songs Of Gastarbeiter Vol 1
open a West German time capsule before Reunification. The songs fit snugly into the narrative of West Germany’s society in transi- tion and into that post-Reunification, greater diaspora world. Unfortunately for English- speakers, the CD booklet notes are in German and Turkish. There are tales of assimilation confounded and casual racism encountered. There are tales of Everyman’s everyday locat- ed esoteric. There are transferrable truths. Take As
¸ik Metin Türköz’ Guten Morgen May-
istero. It is a bungled ‘good morning’ hallo song but the real deal is it’s a song about an expat – Almancı (flavoursomely, ’Germany - lander’) – doing a Motherland trip. (In British terms, it is the NRI (Non Resident Indian) going back.)
ised Turkish. The female singer Zehra Sabeh’s Turkish-language Almanya Dönüs
Some of the tracks are clearly western- ¸ü, licensed
from the Türküola label, happily exploits belly-dance clichés and rhythmicality. On the other hand, there is pointed stuff like Yusuf’s German-language pointy-fingered Türkisch Mann; in 1977 he anticipates the whole gar- lic-breath-style racism of Weil Ich ‘n Türke Bin (Because I’m A Turk) by second-generation Turkish Erci Ergün aka DJ rapper Erci E. in the1990s. With English-language content this could fly.
www.trikont.de Ken Hunt
DAIMH Tuneship Goat Island Music GIMCD003
This is the fifth album from a traditional Scottish Highland band that has been enter- taining us for over twelve years now. Their latest CD Tuneship sees a change in Dàimh’s line-up. Griogair Labhruidh (Gaelic vocals & uillean pipes) and Damian Helliwell (man- dolin and banjo) have come in to join the old hands Angus MacKenzie (Highland pipes & whistle), Gabe McVarish (fiddles) and Ross Martin (guitar).
They’ve been busy over the last two years, and nearly all the instrumental materi- al on this album has been composed by the band members themselves. Followers of the band will be pleased to note that Dàimh’s sig- nature style remains unaltered. For example,
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