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of ordinary people caught up in the conflict. Rachel movingly portrays a mother’s terror on War Film; normality and tragedy are power- fully juxtaposed on Wilfred Wilson Gibson’s Breakfast; Becky Unthank expresses the cold reality of Siegfried Sassoon’s Suicide In The Trenches with moving simplicity; and Sam Lee takes the lead vocal on the percussive, ten- sion-filled opening track Roland and Vera. Largely built around McNally’s sensitive piano arrangements, appropriate gravity duly rules.
Yet it’s the third CD – the poems of Emily Brontë set to music – that carries the widest resonance and broadest appeal beyond the immediate environment of its origins. Com- missioned by the Brontë Society to mark the 200th anniversary of Emily Brontë’s birth, it features Adrian McNally playing very cau- tiously on Emily’s own (restored) piano at the Parsonage in Haworth, Yorkshire, which now serves as a museum to the family.
These are obscure works – Emily’s poetry was only fleetingly published in her lifetime and received little attention – and absorbing it through the medium of McNally’s piano and the Unthank sisters’ quiet vocals adds to the yearning mystery and melancholic isola- tion of her popular image. She remains a dis- tant figure, but perhaps an even more intriguing one as a result.
It ain’t rock ’n’ roll and you can’t dance to it but, like the other two CDs, it offers calm contemplation and plentiful food for thought.
the-unthanks.com Colin Irwin BASSEKOU KOUYATÉ &
NGONI BA Miri OutHere Records OH032 CD
This is the fifth album by the Malian greats since their stunning debut Segu Blue in 2006. Each album shows a development on the pre- vious one but this one more than others.
Whether it is the recording or different pick-up systems, the ngonis sound brighter and sharper than on their previous albums and more capable of tonal variety. Bassekou playing bottleneck slide ngoni (on Weli Ni) is just one of the innovations.
Another change is in his voice produc- tion, which is more mellow overall at the same time as being more engaging. There is perhaps less of the wonderful voice of his wife Amy Sacko this time but when we hear it, she really makes her mark. Her singing of the last song Yakare helps to make it the out- standing track.
Featuring guests on some individual tracks adds a great deal including rhythmic variety, particularly where they are joined by the award-winning Cuban Madera Limpia to create some exciting Afro-Cuban music and take the ngoni into a new area.
There is more novelty in that two percus- sionists are present throughout: Moctar Kouyaté offers a great variety of clicking sounds on the calabash and Mahamadou Tounkara plays different hand drums. They make the overall sound slightly heavier but enhance it.
Clearly this has been a big production job with little bits added by people Bassekou has worked with over the years. Kanto Kale- na comes over as a classic Manding piece and is a vehicle for the intimate and relaxed voice of one of Mali's great veterans Habib Koite.
A very carefully and expensively pro- duced album, it would seem to be aimed at a wider audience than their previous fan base, but there is nothing to suggest that Bassekou is turning his back on his roots. What we have here is a great artist expanding the possibili- ties of his genre.
Mekons
All the songs were written by Bassekou and in the excellent 16-page booklet we are offered a synopsis and background to each of the songs – lots of environmental and politi- cal concerns – as well as arresting photos. This was the first album to be reviewed here in 2019 and it will be difficult to find another as good this year.
outhere.de Vic Smith
MEKONS Deserted Glitterbeat GBCD069
When the first chords of Lawrence Of California blast out of the speakers, it’s enough to make you believe there might be a deity. Some forty minutes later, when the album squeals and shrieks to an end, it’s beyond doubt. Yes, the Mekons are back,
bringing cosmic country, noise, lyrical obscuri- ty and a Bowie tribute/deconstruction that begins with Iggy Pop getting a bag of sand from a Berlin vending machine. There’s a track (How Many Stars – it’s on this issue’s fRoots 72) that walks a fine line between bleak, twisted folk and country and, oh yes, some fine, fine rock’n’roll.
It’s also sonically one of the best-sound- ing and most detailed Mekons albums, thanks to new(ish) bass player and producer Dave Trumfio, whose studio in the California desert was the scene for the sessions. Without even trying, it’s a disc that goes its own way, quite naturally obtuse, beholden to no trend, style, or genre; they’ve long since moved beyond that. Which makes Weimar Vending Machine stand out, with sections where voic- es and keyboards deliberately call up echoes of Hunky Dory. For all that, it’s not a song that Bowie could have dreamed of writing.
But that’s the anomaly, as Mirage proves they still have that connection to their mid- pace punk roots, and Andromeda harks back to their country’n’terror years. It’s not a summing up, by any means. It’s another step forward for
RAD ORCHESTRA Rad Orchestra Labelship
Beware the hats. They have distractingly silly hats, but don’t let them put you off as they nearly did me. Squint and stick it into the CD player first and yer lugs are in for a big treat.
It would be very tempting to trot out a bewildering list of ‘reminds of’ references, mixed up with ‘played with’ namedropping. So we won’t go there, interesting though it all is. They have a tight groove, dropping a funky orchestral folk wash (three fiddlers in the line-up) over an often ‘desert blues’ foun- dation. One of leader/singist Max Andre Rademacher’s main instruments is the ngoni, though he – or maybe it’s other twangist James Patrick Gavin, who also contributes mandolin – can do a fine Nile Rogers chop on electric guitar too. Bugger, there went a ‘sounds like’. I’ll stop that. OK, well, there’s a bit of Shooglenifty meets Robert Plant (or is it Justin Adams?) in there. Stop it!
Sultry backing vocals from Louise Gibbens (one of the violin gals) work really well, and inestimable Duncan Noble’s bass holds and burbles it all together. And they have guest hitters of suitable things, particularly drums (Richie Stevens) and cajon, congas, shakers, tablas and all sorts from Renu Hossein.
Catchy tunes, smart playing and singing, infectious pulses. Oi’ll give it foive. Oh look, somebody else said “a hypnotic folk-esque Tinariwen meets Tim Buckley” sound. They do have you grabbing for those ‘reminds ofs’, though in truth they are original, invigorat- ing and dew-on-a-daisy refreshing.
radorchestra.bandcamp.com Ian Anderson
a band that’s spent more than four decades never standing still. There’s plenty of life in them yet – and being on Glitterbeat in Europe means people can buy this without taking out a new mortgage. O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! Drink the Kool Aid, join the cult.
glitterbeat.com Chris Nickson
Photo: Ricky Malpas
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