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where, for example, when rhythmicality steps in on Kausi Kanhra, Indranil Mallick does the honours on tabla.) Two other per- formances complete this inspired night-time selection – a two-part Durgeswari and a light closing r ¯ag setting of Pilu as a ragamala ‘gar- land’. Without question, Immersion is the most inspirational and sublime new release of Hindustani music to arrive thus far in 2018. Required night listening. Unimpressive packaging for such a divine release.
alamkhan.com Ken Hunt CONOR O’SULLIVAN
Fifty For Electricity Conor O’Sullivan NEW 1004
Mama’s Broke MAMA’S BROKE
Count The Wicked Mama’s Broke 9310381414
Mama’s Broke are two multi-talented Canadi- an women, Amy Lou and Lisa Maria, who turn in a delightful debut CD that deserves attention. They do the lot, sing, play and write the material, and offer incredible vari- ety for just two people. What May Come is a song backed by just fiddle played percussively as their two voices blend perfectly before they finish the song with a fiddle and banjo tune that could have been lifted off many an old-time country music record, but is one of their own.
Wrecking Need is a straight country song in format, with added steel guitar and great harmonies from Amy and Lisa as they offer marriage if “you’ll never ask me to put the bottle away”. This is home-produced music at its best, right from the opening Count The Wicked, with just guitar and banjo, taking this minor key song that shows off the way they use their voices to full effect as they play and sing with great authority. Only on one over-long instrumental do they let them- selves down a little in an otherwise excellent recording of acoustic country-based music.
mamasbroke.ca John Atkins AMY GODDARD
Down in the Mine (EP) AmyGoddardMusic 1919246202668
Amy’s a well-regarded name on the folk and acoustic scene around Portsmouth, although she grew up in South Wales in the Merthyr Valley. Her status as singer-songwriter is com- plemented by her expertise as music teacher and luthier.
Down In The Mine is her third release, coming after two very fine full-length albums (Burn And Glow and Secret Garden); it takes the form of a themed EP presenting six songs with a mining connection, three of which are Amy’s own compositions. The haunting Remembering Aberfan was released as a charity single commemorating the 50th anniversary of the disaster and named Fatea magazine’s song of the year in 2016. It’s notable for its intensity and unsentimentality, and has a beautifully restrained choral arrangement. Green Is The Colour, an intelli- gent folk-styled allegory, also makes a strong impact. The third self-penned number,
ALAM KHAN Immersion AMMP CD201814
Immersion is the recording that, more than any other commercial release, reveals the sarod player Alam Khan to be a modern-day virtuoso in the ascendant. Back in 2001 he sat beside his father, the sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan on the dais at St John’s Presbyte- rian Church in Berkeley, CA, for AMMP’s From Father To Son (2002).
On this recording Alam Khan approach- es a night-time repertoire. Immersion opens adventurously with a serious and relatively rare r ¯ag. His three-part Kausi Kanhra imbues this night r ¯ag, to mix orientalisms, with a Zen-like quality. (An earlier performance of singular quality is his father’s gurubhai (‘guru brother’), Ravi Shankar on Maestro’s Choice Series One – Ravi Shankar (Music Today, 1991), beside which it stands up superlatively.) It is hard to grasp the power and delicacy of Alam Khan’s playing and interpretation. His Kausi Kanhra opens with a marvellously measured alap (‘conversation’) – the more familiar of the two major r¯ag opening movements, performed in free time, unaccompanied and without rhythm. (Else-
Underground Road, relates with sanguine resilience the daily risks of life in a mining community, yet is by comparison perhaps almost too chirpy as a result of its jaunty triple-time setting. The remaining tracks are a trio of well-chosen covers. There’s an excel- lent version of Blue Murder, Alistair Hulett’s memorable portrayal of the hazards of asbestos mining, compellingly done as an a cappella duet (with – I think – Andy Adams) to a thumping percussion beat. Amy’s consid- ered take on Bob Dylan’s North Country Blues uncannily observes history repeating itself in Wales in the 1980s. Finally, an appealing duet rendition of Merle Travis’s Dark As A Dun- geon completes the set.
Amy and her fingerpicked guitar are sup- ported by a handful of musician and singer friends (including fiddler Hannah Fisher, who turns in some neat solo work), while she and her co-producer Brian Kutscher prove to have a good ear for an interesting arrangement. The EP is most attractively presented, as is a full-colour booklet (available separately from Amy) which includes full lyrics, background notes and some beautiful photography.
amygoddardmusic.co.uk David Kidman
The strangely titled Fifty For Electricity is the third solo album from Cork singer-song writ- er Conor O’Sullivan. The former DeLuce’s Patent member and multi-instrumentalist has amassed a curiously endearing array of influ- ences and approaches. Laid back vocally, he occupies a plateau somewhat between the ambient style of Daniel Lanois and the vocal and lyrical styles of John Martyn, John Spillane and Luka Bloom to name but three. Lyrical and astute as a commentator on the vagaries of life, the title track hinges on unemployment, Wrong Time emits a warm welcoming charm and The Stream mixes failed romanticism and the sort of down- tempo melody beloved of Bert Jansch and Sandy Denny’s Fotheringay. The swamp vamp of The Great Outdoors and Things Have Changed mix his lyrical bent with an alt-folk backing that shimmers in ethereality.
Fifty For Electricity sparkles with a slow burning fizz which also radiates a quiet beauty.
conorosullivanmusic.com John O’Regan ODETTA
The Albums Collection 1954-62 Acrobat Music ACFCD7512
This five-CD set is a collection of material taken from Odetta’s first nine albums. The repertoire, mostly recorded in the late ‘50s, is astonishingly eclectic; Rock Island Line, Daddy Fox, Cannot Keep From Crying, No More Cane on the Brazos, John Henry, This Land is your Land, Lowlands, Weeping Wil- low Blues, The Foggy Dew. The Frozen Log- ger! I suspect Odetta was the source for a lot of early repertoire in the embryonic folk/skif- fle scene in Britain.
She has a superb, powerful voice. Some of the earlier studio recordings I find hard to listen to since she seems to be singing her top notes slightly flat – perhaps a stylistic blues ‘slide’ that never gets there or because she’s reining in her astonishing power and volume. She’s best by far when singing to a live audi- ence at full throttle. Recorded at the Carnegie Hall in 1960, the unaccompanied gospel shout God’s A-Gonna Cut You Down is outstanding – you can almost hear the audi- ence rising to its feet to acclaim her. Those long-tongued liars had already slunk out, no doubt… (The low point is the mawkish Ballad For Americans – yikes!)
It’s good to hear her introducing a few of the songs on the final CD; I remember her slightly sardonic, deadpan humour from when we saw her in concert at the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh on what must have been her final tour in 2008. She had been due to perform at Barack Obama’s inauguration cer- emony, but sadly passed away only a month before the event.
acrobatmusic.net Maggie Holland
Photo: Elaine Doyle
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