Hey everyone. I'm surprised that none of you have reviewed the new Talvin Singh or Antibalas Orchestra, so I guess I'll do the honors. I don't have much time, so they're gonna be short.
-Talvin Singh- Ha: I was very anxiously awaiting this one, and felt a little bit disappointed when I actually listened to it all the way through. It sounds ok and all, but there just seems to be that something missing that stops me from playing it constantly. It actually reminds me quite a bit of State Of Bengal's last record, "Visual Audio". He's definitely not breaking any new ground here, but I guess we can't expect him to do that every time out. Very listenable and will probably appeal to those who aren't familiar with Eastern-influenced Electronica (or whatever you wanna call it, I could care less about titles and categories), but the rest of you probably won't get all that excited over it.
-Antibalas' Afrobeat Orchestra: Liberation Afrobeat Vol. 1: Once again, this one sounds really great, but those familiar with afrobeat won't find anything new here. It's been done before, and the deferrement to Fela's music is almost embarassing. I don't see why it shouldn't do very well thought, as it's an excellent primer to the afrobeat sound and can probably turn alot of Ninja-Hedz onto this great music. Think of it as Fela with a new coat of paint. If you have a chance to see them live, see them at all cost; they are an EXCELLENT live band and you're guaranteed to be shaking your ass within five minutes.
-Maleem Mahmoud Ghania and Pharoah Sanders: The Trance Of Seven Colors- This record was actually released in 1994 on Axiom and I'd been looking for it for years, but it's so damn good that I had to clue y'all into it. Pharoah Sanders meets the Master Musicians of Jajouka: what else do you need to know?? Everyone's in tip-top form here, and the songs are so damn catchy, you'll be humming them for weeks!!! A definite must-have for fans of world music, especially fans of Moroccan music.
Finally, I caught Mike Clark (ex-Headhunter) and his all-star lineup when they performed here in Montreal last month, and I gotta say that I was very disappointed! You'd figure that with a lineup like Charlie Hunter on guitar, Robert Walter (Greyboy Allstars) on keys, Skerik (Stanton Moore's band), Dj Logic(MMW and others) on the turntables and the great ex-headhunter on the kit, the show couldn't miss, right? Wrong. The set was totally uninspiring, especially after having been completely been blown away by each of these artists on their respective solo tours. It seemed like they were just there to put in an evening's work and call it a night, and the crowd seemed to sense it, as people started to leave about 90 minutes into the show. I left after 2 hours, completely unimpressed and disappointed. Oh well.........
Stimp
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed Apr 04 2001 - 19:42:42 CEST