World Music Reviews November 2015

Perceptive Travel World Music Reviews
November 2015 - By Graham Reid

In this issue: new songs from Spain with deep roots, a Pacific journey in sound, thought-provoking folk with Appalachian influences and African voices in harmony.

Codigo de Barros
El Naan

We say: Spanish roots music given a nudge backward and forward.

The clever word play of this album's title (change one letter and the Spanish for "barcode" becomes "mudcode", as per the cover image to the right) is emblematic of the smarts within. But this is not clever-smart, just an astute collection of original songs executed within the long traditions of earthy indigenous Spanish folk, and from the crossroads of Jewish, Celtic and Arabian music on the Iberian peninsula.

With gutsy and impassioned vocals, traditional instruments alongside electric guitar and tenor sax, "El Naan" comes off like a long and sometimes melancholy night in a rural cantina by inspired, intelligent and connected local musicologists. The music and rhythms are ancient, and the lyrics (explained in English in the useful booklet) contain timeless stories of a world which is passing.

This is fascinating 21st century folk with a rugged spirit, emotional strength — some bebop sax too on "La Atalaya/The Watchtower "– and a sensually spiritual dimension: As on their 11 minute setting of the poetic quatrains of Omar Khayyam.

Very engaging.

Amataga/The Beginning
Te Vaka

We say: Music from beneath the palms and with a blue ocean before it.

Founded in New Zealand 20 years ago, based in Australia this past decade, and a longtime fixture on stages at world music and cultural festivals across Europe, this family of musicians (and friends) have widespread roots. Members call Tuvalu, Samoa, Tokelau and the Cook Islands home. So they bring the warmth and concerns of the Pacific diaspora to their always uplifting, pop-framed and acoustic-based sound.

Now billed in small print as "Opetaia's Te Vaka" — after their leader, singer and songwriter Opetaia Foa'i – on this, their eighth album, they once again offer a collection of exotic-sounding and appealing Pasifika music.It’s full of joyous shouts and lively percussion ("Siva Mamalu/Majestic Dance") alongside the crisscross rhythms of log drums (the terrifically energetic "Tike Te Galu" and "Uso").

The acoustic lament for the missing on the Malaysian Airlines' flight ("Tolu Fitu O/370") is palpably heartfelt, and the rhythmic backdrop on the hip-sway "Sasa Le Vao/Cut the Grass" is a speaker-swishing sound evoking a scythe. However, despite its best intentions, the support for the beleaguered peoples of West Papua on "Papua I Sisifo/West Papua" comes off as a slogan rather than a song.

But the rest of this is engaging, effortlessly melodic music with messages of love for family and respect for the world we have been given ("Put back more than you take" on the title track). And it all comes beautifully produced with chiming guitar parts which often have a gentle, oceanic surge about them.

Ain't We Brothers
Sam Gleaves

We say: Gay Appalachian traditional musician ticks minority boxes but has major appeal.

Gleaves from southwest Virginia digs deep into traditional and often obscure Appalachian music alongside some seamlessly authentic originals. Despite being an accomplished scholar with a degree in academic folklore, he delivers these songs like a working class, dirt-fingernail, and soulful singer-songwriter.

The banjo-pickin' title track based on the life of a gay West Virginia coal miner—who did all expected of him in his tough, blue-collar man's world but was derided for his sexuality—is a simple and clear narrative. The words, "Ain't we flesh and blood on through, ain't we brothers too" make their point through eloquent simplicity.

Fiddle-driven songs like the reflective "Just Like Jordan" and the Carter Family's "My Dixie Darlin'" (given an interesting twist) co-exist alongside lively dance tunes ("Froze up/Callahan"), honest accounts of his sexuality ("Two Virginia Boys") and political songs ("Angels in Ashes", a tribute to activists on the frontlines).

A gifted storyteller closer to the James Taylor tradition than perhaps the raw Appalachian folk styles, Gleaves manages a distinctive mark with this impressive, crafted but honest-sounding collection.

African Harmonies
Insingizi

We say: The force is strong, but slow, in this one.

Subtitled "Siyabonga/We Thank You", this album further explores this Zimbabwean trio's successful, close harmony, a cappella sound which sometimes evokes a gentle gospel spiritualism. Briefly at one point it interpolates distinctive bird and animal noises.

Being charitable however, this—mostly in Ndebele with short passages in English—is rather lovely in small samplings (the moving "Laduma" and the effortless mathematical weft and warp of voices on "Vuma"). But over 13 songs and 48 minutes, it rarely moves far from slow consideration and those interweaving vocal harmonies.

May we say this, as an album, just gets a little same-same over the long haul?

Graham Reid is a New Zealand—based travel/music/arts writer whose first book Postcards from Elsewhere won the 2006 Whitcoulls Travel Book of the Year Award in New Zealand. His second book The Idiot Boy Who Flew won the Whitcoulls Reader Choice award and is available through www.amazon.com. He hosts his own wide-screen website www.elsewhere.co.nz and his most recent travels have been through India, odd parts of China, the Australian Outback and Jordan. He is getting to like comfort alongside discomfort..

See the last round of music reviews from Graham Reid.