f112 AFRO CELT SOUND
SYSTEM Flight ECC 019
The hiatus years when the band members went off to do their own thing – among, other things, The Imagined Village in the case of Simon Emmerson and Johnny Kalsi – have done Afro Celts a power of good. They re- charged batteries, settled a little local dispute with former members, and came roaring back in 2016 with the spectacular The Source.
That renewed impetus sustains them still on an eighth studio album which they describe as their most political work, engag- ing the Amani Choir, Stone Flowers and the African Gospel Singers and other musicians from Africa and elsewhere to join and unify them in a bold extravaganza exploring stories of migration and alienation in an ever more inflamed and impressive manner.
It’s a natural thematic step, perhaps, for a
band that’s always championed multi-cultur- alism and explored the excitement inherent in the swapping and sharing of traditional roots and influences. The clue has always been in the name, though the Sound System part of it takes a bit of a back seat here – this is pre- dominantly a band playing live with a relative absence of the loops and samples which have characterised much of their work in the past.
The centrepiece of a passionate album is an extended ‘migration medley’, depicting flight, migration and homecoming, but they do it in a soulful, considered manner that fully captures the drama, intensity, thrill and panic of the theme, including a memorable lament sung by the inestimable Ríoghnach Connolly. Given the emotional outpouring that has preceded it, the heartfelt concluding track Night Crossings Part 2, featuring Stone Flowers, a Manchester band comprising refugees from the likes of Iran, Kuwait, Sri Lanka, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, is an emotional masterclass.
Elsewhere, they make a great racket, too. Electronic beats abound amid spectacu- lar showcases of Kalsi’s drums, the vocals and Highland pipes of Griogair, the evocative kora/balafon/vocals of N’faly Kouyaté, the uilleann pipes of Emer Mayock, the fiddle of Ewen Henderson, the percussion of Kalifa Knoé, various rhythmic outbursts and dynam- ic blasts of brass and the flute and vocals of Ríoghnach Connolly, who can switch the mood with one breathy vocal, as she does on the splendid Rippling.
Afro Celt Sound System
The choirs add a powerful gospel flavour on a work that sounds fresh, urgent and sharply alive. Get your teeth into it, analyse its underlying cultural significance, glory in its message of global community and under- standing… or just dance to it. It’s all there.
eccrecords.co.uk Colin Irwin
HAZEL DICKENS & ALICE GERRARD
Sing Me Back Home: The D.C. Tapes, 1965 – 1969 Free Dirt DIRT-CD-0087
The work of pioneering bluegrass women Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard has been enjoying something of a rediscovery since the still-active octogenarian Gerrard’s Follow The Music was Grammy-nominated in 2015.
This is a collection of private recordings captured in the period dating from just after the release of their first album, Who's That Knocking? And Other Bluegrass Music (Verve Folkways, 1965) to four years before their sec- ond, Won’t You Come & Sing For Me?
Opening with the Everly Brothers’ Bye
Bye Love, Hazel and Alice canter good- naturedly through a diverse repertoire encompassing traditional folk-gospel, con- temporary country hits by Dolly Parton and Merle Haggard, vintage country and blue- grass songs by The Louvin Brothers, Jimmie Rodgers, Ralph Stanley and Bill Monroe, Richard Rabbit Brown’s James Alley Blues, and a whole slew of Carter Family classics.
It’s a fascinating record of singers explor- ing the songs’ melodies and their harmonic capabilities – punctuated by the occasional cough and a rather endearing gargle and gig- gle before I’ll Wash Your Love From My Heart. Accompaniments are mostly simple strumming on acoustic guitar or autoharp, except the incomplete Bound To Ride – when Alice’s banjo comes charging in like an aveng- ing honky tonk angel.
The appealing CD package contains a 16- page booklet with informative track notes and an essay by Maureen Loughran. A valu- able addition to the Hazel & Alice catalogue and a rewarding listen for anyone who likes their authentic old-time country music served up with the raw immediacy of the Holy Modal Rounders.
freedirt.net Steve Hunt
ALAN PROSSER 5/4 AP Rafting Dog Records RD054
Oysterband’s founding member and lead gui- tarist has been so busy and in-demand through his 45-year career that he’s made very few solo albums, of which only 2003’s Maker- field was a genuinely solo affair. For those used to Prosser’s powerhouse axe work with Oysterband, that set was something of a sur- prise for its wholly acoustic nature, while it also found him picking up other instruments. On 5/4 AP, Prosser uses both acoustic and elec- tric guitars in various combinations, with occa- sional use of a guitar synth, kantele or fiddle.
The thinking behind this latest offering
is specific: it’s a collection of instrumental pieces and songs which all happen to be in 5- time. Its very title is a kind of homage to Davy Graham’s landmark 1962 3/4 AD EP which contained the iconic Anji. There may be no such groundbreaking composition here, but the set nevertheless leaves the impression that Prosser’s prowess as a thoughtful guitar stylist has hitherto been somewhat under- sung. Its ten tracks deliver an eclectic pro- gramme that encompasses pastoral-pictorials (Ridingate, Out Of Kent, Stour Water), the stirringly folk-baroque Tommy Atkins March and the most obviously Graham-esque piece of all, Five For You (already outed at Prosser’s solo gigs). Interspersed between the instru- mentals there’s four songs, ranging from the punchy, driven Simple Is Never Easy to the more nostalgic Amy Isn’t Waiting and the intriguing insight into the state of mind of a Suicide Bomber.
Here’s a “bunch of fives” to welcome into your home time and again, then.
oysterband.co.uk David Kidman
NARTHEN [‘na:den] No Masters NMCD52
Whatever happened to Coope, Boyes & Simp- son? Glad you asked. Barry Coope and Lester Simpson turn up as one half of Narthen – linking up with sisters Jo Freya and Fi Fraser, whose collective CVs include Old Swan Band, Blowzabella, The Old-Fashioned, Polkaworks and the Fraser Sisters.
As you might expect from such a distin- guished line-up, their harmony singing is spot-on (a beautiful version of Pete Bond’s It Haunts Me Still stands out), but this is an album of many facets, not least in the likable jamboree of instrumentation that con- tributes piano, sax, accordeon, fiddle and hammered dulcimer to a varied mix of mate- rial that includes trad songs Henry My Son and Acres Of Land alongside covers of Rory McLeod’s Cold Blow These Winters Away, Steve Ashley’s Once In A While and Anna McGarrigle’s Heart Like A Wheel, and a cou- ple of Lester Simpson’s own songs, Next Per- son Through My Door and The VADS.
Their instrumental versatility is further underlined by an exuberant blast of Galician tunes, an unusual but gently intoxicating slice of Scandinavian/Finnish music (Gungar/Norsk Schottis) and – most ambitiously – combining Jo Freya’s captivating Great War story of women munitions factory workers with a Bach bourée in Devil’s Porridge.
As you’d expect from this personnel – and indeed this label – the material packs quite a social punch; Ray Hearne’s outstand- ing song Pudding Burner commemorates the resilient females who withstood terrible con- ditions to work in the Sheffield steel mills in
Photo: © Judith Burrows
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