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singer immersed in a complex layering of locales and languages, she also heads an emo- tionally versatile ensemble who master all that this traditional storytelling requires.
Kasapsko Oro is a typically unapologetic slice of Balkan-Nuevo, in which Goran Bojˇcevski’s classic line-up of accordeon, clar- inet, whistle, bass and percussion conduct a journey through Latin and jazz-inflected influences before unexpectedly ambient accordeon and virtuosic clarinet resolve into a tango gone dramatically wrong.
Elsewhere, there are encounters with poetry from Roma, Slovenian and Sufi linguis- tic sources, and liberties taken with electroni- ca and dub. Origin stories are made nakedly revelatory through technology and trickery.
“Music from a parallel universe,” it has been said. Music from Slovenia.
sigic.si John Pheby
PLANXTY One Night In Bremen Mig MIG 02062
You only have to mention the name Planxty and I’ll be jumping around like a dalmatian puppy licking everyone in sight but… this is ropier than the ropiest thing in Ropesville.
Tony Joe White
TONY JOE WHITE Bad Mouthin’ Yep Roc CD-YEP-2593
When I was but a lad, a lot of the old blues blokes were just that: old. But we loved the records they made in their later years because what they no longer had in the way of flash playing and youthful brio had been replaced by a minimalist wisdom, the lived-in patina of musical (and life) experience. At 75 years old, Tony Joe White has become one of those. He may be the guy who wrote hits for Elvis, Tina Turner and Brook Benton, but he’s basically a Louisiana boy who grew up on John Lee Hooker and Lightnin’ Hopkins. In Tony Joe’s hands, ‘road weary’ becomes a real asset that you put on like a comfortable coat.
This new album is as simple and basic as it gets. The core is Tony Joe recorded inti- mately and solo in his barn, strumming basic but very effective acoustic guitar and blow- ing the odd harmonica: voice deep, up close and personal, almost whispered, murmured. Songs from Jimmy Reed, Charley Patton, Big Joe Williams, Hooker and Hopkins, plus a few new ones of his own like Cool Town Woman, which sit in among them perfectly. On some tracks he’s amped up his trusty old Telecaster, with drummer Bryan Owings (whose CV includes Emmylou Harris and Wanda Jackson) and bass player Steve Forrest, but the voice is still just there. Central. Right in your ear. And at the end, it’s back to just him alone, effort- lessly exploring Heartbreak Hotel.
You can’t learn how to do this any other way than experiencing a life of living it. If this was made by a younger musician from out- side the culture, it might simply sound embar- rassing, amateurish. But not this: this is real.
yeproc.com Ian Anderson VARIOUS ARTISTS
Tuning Into The World: Slovenia Slovenian Music Information Centre SGCCD004
Slovenia. Nestled in the Alps. Bordering the vast and stark Great Hungarian Plain. Immersed in political and linguistic differ- ence. Still defining and redefining itself after its epochal secession from Yugoslavia at the very outset of the Balkan conflicts in the 1990s. Razor wire borders, through which only music can flow freely. The Slovene- speaking, drone-singing valleys of Italy to the west. The multi-facets of the Balkans to the east. The Mediterranean south. Any compila- tion of Slovenia’s unjustly neglected contem- porary musical riches is compelled to be as multicultural, open, wide-ranging and brave in its definitions as this collection is. The com- pilers rightly view their world as “distorted, chaotic, scarred, unjust and broken… but also beautiful, fascinating and gloriously diverse”. An album of influence rather than source is their conclusion. In music of vast and shared landscapes, selections slip easily between aus- tere and evocative tradition, fidelity and radi- cal rejection.
Katalena, for example, fearlessly blend heavy electric, disposable pop with more tra- ditional storytelling instincts, played out through shuddering percussion and an even deeper, even more insistent, organic heart- land choral. A yearning and revivifying revival of often gloriously disrespectful experimentation not beholden to any partic- ular influence, musical style, or agenda, but happily conversant with the archives.
Dej Mi Bože Jo I Sokolove is a reasonable request to the divine to be granted a helpful pair of hawk’s eyes. Klarisa Jovanovi´c conceives of national and international worlds through a convolution of forms. A poet, a translator, a
A concert in Bremen in 1979 recorded by Radio Bremen when the ranks of Christy Moore, Andy Irvine, Liam O’Flynn and Donal Lunny had been swelled by the magnificent flautist Matt Molloy – an epic line-up whichever way you view it – but a bit of an off night by the sound of it. Worse, the recording quality leaves much to be desired, with shaky volume levels and poor sound denting what is, on paper, a cracking set list – The Pursuit Of Farmer Hayes, The Good Ship Kangaroo, You Rambling Boys Of Pleasure, Raggle Taggle Gypsy, Smeceno Horo et al.
We are so conditioned to hearing all the creases ironed out of live recordings these days it’s a bit of a shock to hear all these imperfections. They are still gods, though.
mig-music.de Colin Irwin
CONNLA The Next Chapter Connla 5391502519837
Armagh and Co Derry-based quintet Connla made an impressive opening with their previ- ous recordings – their debut self-named EP and 2016’s debut album River Waiting. Their latest album, The Next Chapter, follows their evolution into spicier and more ambient shapes but never loses sight of a traditional base. The ghost of Moving Hearts and Davey Spillane’s chemistry experiments flow through Conor Mallen’s pipes and Ciaran Carlin’s flutes while Emer Mallon’s harp eerily underscores the modal reed and flute fantasy flights. Organised Chaos and Mighty Makena’s find tune ideas coalescing into lopsided yet highly focused displays of combined virtuosity.
Vocally Ciara McCaffery – her Northern tones resembling Cara Dillon – tends the lyri- cal concerns of a strongly contemporary song pile from the likes of Rhiannon Giddens, Dick Gaughan and the Gail Collins/Felix Pappalar- di ode to romantic ardour One Last Cold Kiss, and the two traditional songs, Wayfairing Stranger and One Starry Night.
Co-producer Sean Og Graham adds colour and zest to the fray but Connla are unfettered and unafraid to walk on the Celtic wild side. Progressing by leaps and bounds The Next Chapter thrills and excites in equal measure, realising their idealistic nature.
connlamusic.com John O’Regan
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