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RECORDS Music
sounds and dynamic rhythms captured here ably showcase the thrilling musicianship and deep messages conjured up by Seattle- based duo, Cahalen and Eli. Twelve original
compositions and two traditional covers draw on Appalachian traditions with more than a wistful emotional nod to 24-year-old Cahalen’s Isle of Lewis- born great grandfather, a Gaelic poet. Deft finger-picking on
lap slide guitar, mandolin and clawhammer banjo ensure a lively, rootsy ambience for double harmony songs. Follow the buzz these guys will create. (Jan Fairley)
JAZZ MEADOW Blissful Ignorance (Edition Records) ●●●●●
A blissful combination that brings together three of the most creative musicians in European jazz: saxophonist Tore Brunborg, pianist John Taylor and drummer Thomas Strønen. Throwing together tasty ingredients doesn’t necessarily guarantee a satisfying dish, but this trio meet the high expectations their names suggest. Brunborg takes the
lion’s share of the compositional credits, but it is the interplay of their combined talents and musical understanding that really stands out in their explorations of the material, whether on the dominant floating semi- abstract ballads or more overtly energised outings such as ‘Badger’ and ‘Meadow’. (Kenny Mathieson)
JAZZ EDUARDO NIEBLA My Gypsy Waltz (LMR Records) ●●●●● Yorkshire-based Flamenco jazz guitarist Eduardo Niebla is a regular visitor to
Scotland and launched this album at Celtic Connections. Niebla’s virtuoso guitar work is the centre of attention on a set of his own compositions, which offer a multifaceted exploration of his musical roots (he was born in Tangiers and grew up in a Gypsy enclave in Spain) and his subsequent passion for the music of the Middle East and India. His brother Salvador and Dharmesh Parmar lay down a fluid rhythmic foundation on drums and tabla, while Indian violinist Jyotsna Srikanth adds a striking colouration to the music. (Kenny Mathieson) WORLD LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO Songs From a Zulu Farm (Proper) ●●●●●
It’s debateable whether the ubiquity of the Ladysmith Black Mambazo sound (once it had graced the Heinz baked beans advert which took the South African choir into the mainstream) came at the expense of a specialist audience whose expectations might keep them at the aesthetic edge. Tapping into old Zulu songs from the 1940s and 50s reveals them at their vocal best, offering lullaby-like songs that come over as prayers. Songs of memory and history captured in close harmony call and response arrangements, which reproduce traditional hierarchical structures, show just how the past informs the present. No change then, but still a beautiful listen. (Jan Fairley)
ALSO RELEASED
Tom Tom Club Genius of Live (Because Music) ●●●●● Any excuse to hear the sampled- like-crazy ‘Genius of Love’ again is good, but rereleasing an old live album with a few new remixes seems a pointless exercise from the side-project of Talking Heads’ husband-wife rhythm section Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth. How about a new album? The Radio Dept Passive Aggressive: Singles 2001–2010 (Labrador) ●●●●●
TRD are basically brilliant and you should own this – an ideal entry point to the Swedes’ three shimmering lo-fi dream-pop albums and numerous EPs. Their B-side set alone could trump most bands’ A-sides.
James Blake s/t (Atlas) ●●●●● BBC Sound of 2011 runner-up Blake may be a wonderful singer, but we can’t really tell for the slatherings of auto- tune and glitchy production. It’s like a very talented dancer being rolled onstage in a giant plastercast.
Marti Pellow Love to Love (Tesco) ●●●●● It’s Valentine’s, hence the new album from this master of sop. The Wets singer was already destined to roast in the flames of music hell for ‘Love Is All Around’; this set of disgustingly over- wrought schmaltz will only speed his journey. Roberta Flack Love Songs (Rhino) ●●●●● Love is all around, at least in supermarket CD aisles, where this set of US soul legend Flack’s slushiest bits is headed. It’d be churlish to say these aren’t fine songs finely sung, even if ‘Killing Me Softly’ is forever sullied – by its association with the perennially punchable Hugh Grant. (Malcolm Jack)
3–17 Feb 2011 THE LIST 67
FOLK/POP/ROCK PJ HARVEY Let England Shake (Island) ●●●●●
There she goes, marching forth, marking irretrievable distance between her military coat-tails and the rest of the contemporary rock battalion flagging in her wake. Again. A glance at the track-list and a cursory scan through PJ Harvey’s staggering eighth solo album may suggest that we are grooving on familiar territory – that is, a realm of bluesy, pastoral rock as embellished by long-term allies John Parish, Mick Harvey and Flood; plotted by song titles that reference murder, darkness and bitterness – but don’t be fooled.
Where previously Harvey has explored the insular, the personal and the physiological; the folkloric, the gothic and the symbolic; so now she excavates her land, its heritage and its bloody conflicts. She’s looking backwards, looking outwards and wrestling with questions of national identity.
The album may be embedded in clarion autoharp, brass fanfares,
and sing-a-long handclaps, but it sure ain’t pretty. On ‘The Words that Maketh Murder’, for example, Harvey sings of shot-up bodies and decapitated limbs hanging out of trees in a playful, nigh-angelic cadence that’s augmented by sunny rockabilly riffs. This contrast – conflict, even – between welcoming melodies and horrifying imagery is at the heart of Let England Shake’s dramatic and compelling force. From the Cocteaus-reggae of ‘Written on the Forehead’ through the
protest-folk of ‘The Colour of the Earth’, this is a weighty, thrilling undertaking. ‘This Glorious Land’, meanwhile, is a delirious album highlight and signals Harvey’s first-ever foray into bugle-pop. Clearly she still has much ground to cover. Let us hope she never rests. (Nicola Meighan)
FREAK FOLK SEA OF BEES Songs for the Ravens (Heavenly Recordings) ●●●●● This dreamy country- rock debut album from Sacramento, California chanteuse Julie Ann Bee – or Julie Baenziger, or Sea of Bees – has attracted fans including Grandaddy deity Jason Lytle. This comes as
little surprise: its fusion of driving acoustic serenades (‘Wizbot’) and slow-burning piano chorales (‘Willis’) can be entrancing. The album’s opener,
‘Gnomes’, echoes Leonard Cohen’s woozy torch-song ‘Dance Me to the End of Love’, while ‘Fyre’ calls to mind The Sundays, even if the mid-tempo multi- layered, jangly harmonics can get a bit tiresome.
Still, any ennui is assuaged by epic centrepiece, ‘Marmalade’: its plunging, slow-burning, heavenly pop is
haunting and compelling. (Nicola Meighan) BLUEGRASS DUO CAHALEN MORRISON AND ELI WEST The Holy Coming of the Storm Self-released/ www.cahalenandeli.com ●●●●●
A good midwinter blues antidote, the serenading