XAOS "Chaos"

Rarely has a musical release been so sweetly timed. Billed as "Post-Troika Hellenic Trance Music", this latest collaboration by Nick "Dubulah" Page (of Transglobal Underground, Natasha Atlas, Dub Colossus and Syriana renown) called "Xaos" (the Greek word for Chaos) is one that has been gestating for about ten years.

 

Being half-Greek, Dubulah has long wanted to celebrate the musical traditions of his mother's homeland and, to that end, has been working on "Xaos" with Greek (but Australian-born) electronic musician, artist and composer Ahetas. The project has taken shape in fits and starts, as and when circumstances have allowed some of the finest Greek players of traditional instruments and the two main protagonists to be in the same place at the same time.

There are some common misconceptions around Greek musical culture. Most people outside of Greece would think of Bouzoukis, Nana Mouskouri, Zorba - and perhaps at a pinch Rebetiko. But Greek music has a rich five thousand year history. The instrumentation of "Xaos" reflects this perfectly with a Nay (Nose flute), Bul Bul (double flute), a Clarino (Greek clarinet), haunting Gaida (Greek bagpipes) and the exquisite Pontic Lyra. All of this is topped off with traditional Greek and modern-day Junk percussion,  a Double Bass, Dubulah's guitars, Ahetas' old-school ARP keyboards and both of their digital wizardy.

As one might expect from a piece of work that's taken ten years to come to fruition, the nature of the music is that it is not in a hurry to go anywhere. The lapping of the Mediterranean and some extraordinary chanted scales start us on our way on "Pontos Blues", with cameos by some of the aforementioned traditional instruments. This feeds beautifully into "Poreia Processional" which takes us on a slow march through ancient streets, the hypnotic music taking us to another place by virtue of an ever-evolving theme with minute microtonal changes along the way.

By the time we get to the dramatic "Antigone stin plateia syntagma" ("Antigone in Constitution Square") one can start to feel the tension in the air of the inevitable, imminent popular unrest at the crazy, punitive counter-productive austerity measures insisted upon by the Troika. How refreshing that this masterpiece of a CD arrives at a time when Greek society is under so much pressure to re-evaluate its relationship with Europe.

There is a peace and a confident beauty in this music. By the last three somewhat more ambient tracks it is anything but Chaotic, rather it achieves a certain serenity. The seemingly effortless fusion of ancient and modern Balkan ideas, tones, melodies and instruments echoes none other than the work of Mercan Dede on the other side of the Bosphorus. Maybe it is time for Greece to turn its back on Europe and re-discover its true cultural strengths and identity elsewhere?

Mbongwana Star "From Kinshasa"

Every now and then, an act emerges that blows away any preconceived ideas of "genre" and creates something bold and shockingly new.

Mbongwana Star from the Democratic Republic of Congo is one such act and their debut CD "From Kinshasa..." is blowing away critics and audiences alike as they leave the poverty of their shanty-town homes in Kinshasa and begin their extensive world travels to promote it.

There are distorted amplification and repetitive beats here that are redolent of earlier exciting Congotronics projects, with thumb pianos and electric guitars put through all manner of electronic effects boxes made from old car parts and other junk. Indeed Congotronics' Konono#1 feature on the irresistable standout track "Malukayi".

Here are also the heart and soul of Congolese rhumba and soukous: Beatific, heavenly harmonies which give way to insistent, hypnotic, brooding rhythms and a bass that is sometimes bubbly and bouncy and sometimes so distorted it sounds like it's emanating from the very core of the Earth itself.

This mob emerged from the wreckage of Staff Benda Bilili: 60-odd year old Coco and 50-odd year old Theo plus three young and energetic Kinshasa neighbours have joined up with Irish Paris-based producer Liam Farrell aka Doctor L to create what the website blurb describes as "a trans-global barrier-busting sound machine".

The video for "Malukayi" is up on YouTube and well worth a watch - it features the one-kid walking art installation "Congo Astronaut" in his spacesuit of found objects, amid grainy black and white footage of the part disabled, part able-bodied band's manic neighbourhood musical "happenings". The resulting footage is like something from a David Lynch movie - unsettling, intriguing, insistent.....images and sounds that most certainly look to the future rather than dwell in the past.

The Unthanks "Mount The Air"

Ever since Rachel Unthank & The Winterset (as they were back then) released "The Bairns" in 2007, they have won critical and audience acclaim wherever Rachel, her younger sister Becky and their various cohorts have ventured.

They have always been very much part of the "Folk" scene - being born and raised in a folk music family and being partial to the whole folky business of communicating common stories of birth, life and death from one generation to the next.

They will also forever be quintessentially Northern English - with their 12th Century Newcastle Unthank family roots and their sense of place on Tyneside, as well as their unmistakeable lilting Geordie dialect, how could they ever be anything other? But this new Unthanks project "Mount The Air" has a broader, more worldly sweep to it's canvas than any of its predecessors.

There are a couple of instrumentals here and much virtuosic musicianship, which merely make those sweetest of sibling harmonies sound ever stronger when they do chime back in. The opening, ten minute title track is an epic statement of intent. It's an old Dorset folk song of a woman's intention to find her lost lover wherever he is in the world, with much conscious borrowing from Miles Davis circa "Sketches of Spain". It's a statement of a group of musicians intent on throwing off their communal musical straightjacket.

We return to the Geordie vernacular throughout. There is a charming rendering of a Charles Causley poem "Hawthorn". There is also a tender almost-accapella (apart from drone) version of the traditional "Magpie". But then there is another swirling, epic tale of lives and loves lost in "Foundling" with more langorous piano and violin, and another melancholy jazz-infused soundscape.

The Unthanks recently collaborated with the Brighouse & Rastrick Brass Band on a series of re-interpretations of their back catalogue. There are several moments throughout "Mount The Air" where that emotion-laden, archetypal Northern English Brass Band sound washes over the listener only for us to then be taken to a whole new unpredictable, slightly warped place.

In recent years The Unthanks have toyed with many directions - covering music by Robert Wyatt, Antony & The Johnsons, King Crimson and Tom Waits. These eclectic and esoteric influences, together with their avowed indebtedness to the storytelling styles of performers such as Nic Jones or The Watersons, give us a bit of an inkling as to where they might be headed, intent on carving their own, uniquely Newcastle niche wherever they go.

Linsey Pollak "Mrs Curly and The Norwegian Smoking Pipe"

If you attended any of the Bellingen Global Carnivals of yesteryear, chances are that you saw or heard Linsey Pollak in one of his many musical incarnations. You might have seen him alongside Ross Daly as one part of  "Slivanje" or as one half of his duo with Tunji Beier "DVA" . It might have been his "Frog Music" interactive performance piece in which the audience themselves could randomly trigger the tuned sounds of endangered frogs with water guns.

Or, like me, you might have been awestruck by "Knocking on Kevin's Door" in which Kevin the Roadie (Linsey, of course) wandered around the stage creating surprisingly wonderful, soaring sounds from mike stands and gaffer tape which were then put through digital loops. Another memorable show, "The Art of Food", featured Linsey as a French Chef, making wind and percussion instruments from fruit and veggies, his use of a drill to fashion a clarinet from a carrot causing a buzz around the festival.

From 1990 to 2014 Linsey toured the world with these solo shows featuring the live looping of music made from all manner of found object instruments, from feather dusters to watering cans, hose pipes to rubber gloves, from bicycles to the kitchen sink (literally). But for forty years now, away from the stage and back in his workshop, he has been honing his skills as an instrument maker. Inspired by the Hungarian tarogato he has made and perfected the saxillo, a conical bore wooden soprano saxophone. He has also invented and crafted "Crow", a narrow bore bass clarinet made from an Australian Rainforest timber called "Crow's Ash", an instrument which has an other-wordly depth to it's sound. Then there's the clarini - a keyless clarinet made from the Australian timber Gidgee, which lends itself well to Linsey's more ethereal pieces.

The tours de force in Pollak's armoury of instruments would have to be "Bella", "Donna" and "Mrs Curly", the glass instruments he has created in collaboration with the extremely talented glass artisan Arnie Fuchs. Looking like spiral equipment made for scientific experiments, in Linsey's hands these narrow bore glass inventions become contrabass clarinets of the deepest profundity imaginable.

This CD and accompanying 40 page book are a joyful (and educational) combination of all of the fabulous creations Linsey has come up with over the years. A fruition, if you like. It is evident that a lot of love has gone into this self-published, crowd-funded project. The 16 tracks of music are all seriously good. The recordings are top quality. And the musicians who make up the ensemble are seriously talented. On "plucked strings" is Philip Griffin (his bass playing is sumptuous); Louise King contributes some cello-playing that takes Linsey's music to a whole new level; and, as always, Tunji Beier plays his South Indian and Sri Lankan percussion to perfection, and surprises with his sensitive dexterity on a full drum set. His cymbal solo in "On Alert" is simply exquisite.

This last piece features the Norwegian Smoking Pipe of the title, the most recent addition to Linsey's family of instruments. Some long-lost Norwegian cousins recently caught up with Linsey and presented him with the ornate smoking pipe that once belonged to their and his great great grandfather, knowing full well what would be it's fate. He widened the 4mm bore to 8mm, thereby removing many years of nicotine tar. With a soprano sax mouthpiece and some perfectly placed holes (Pollak only had one go at getting it right!) it is now a thing of sublime musical beauty.

If you would like to make contact with Linsey about this fabulous new release, his website is the place to go: www.linseypollak.com - However, a word of warning - make sure you go there when you have plenty of time as you might get lost in the maze of Pollak's zany creativity and totally caught up in the playfulness of it all.

Tony Allen "Film of Life"

Every now and then, while filtering and sorting through new music for 2BBB's weekly two-hour Local Global Show, I come across a track or a CD that leaves me totally gobsmacked. From the fresh perspective of the New Year, one such discovery has firmed up as the undoubted album of 2014, in my books.

It is "Film of Life", the recent masterpiece from septuagenarian Nigerian legend Tony Allen, who was the percussive force behind Fela Kuti and who is the drummer accredited with introducing Afro Beat to the world in the sixties and seventies. He's the man who has been referred to by Brian Eno as "possibly the greatest drummer the world has ever known".

He is one of those more remarkable artists who has never stood still. Always open to collaborations, always shape-shifting through assorted musical genres (from dub, to space jazz, to international pop) but always firmly rooted in his native Yoruba and other Pan-African rhythms. Early on, as an 18 year old technician at Radio Nigeria, and later playing with Fela Kuti in various groups, he developed a unique understanding of the western drum set. Inspired and informed by American Bebop drummers such as Art Blakey and Max Roach. His use of cymbals, snare and tom toms has a trademark unhurried, laid-back quality that runs right through this new, 10th solo release.

The sunny, uplifting AfroBeat backline is there; The funky brass lines; The insistent, jagged rhythm guitar; The tinkling, cascading keyboards: All of these combine to dare you to stay still. In Allen's own words "I’ve always thought of my drums as an orchestra. I like to create a melody with my drums when I play. I like to make them sing" .For "Film of Life" he certainly succeeds in this. He's joined by an array of renowned and supremely talented musicians, young and old, African and European. Manu Dibango and Kuku are among them.

His long term friend Damon Albarn is also heavily involved, lending his lead vocals to one of two tracks on which Allen implores potential refugees from Africa to think again before taking that perilous "Boat Journey" across the Mediterranean, rather to "Go Back" to work within their local communities to try to make things better. The production team, a trio of Paris musicians by the name of the Jazzbastards, create a mix of crystal clarity, the mass of voices and instruments always separated beautifully.

Frank Yamma 'Uncle"

On the 30th November, there will be a very special garden concert at Osprey Drive, Hungry Head. It's another in the series of "The Global Vibe" gigs and we in Bellingen are indeed blessed, in that this one will feature one of Australia's foremost Indigenous singer / songwriters Frank Yamma. He's on the road to promote his new Wantok Music CD "Uncle".

He has played here before, performing a memorable gig with long-time collaborator / producer / mentor David Bridie at the Global when he was doing the rounds to promote his critically-acclaimed 2010 release "Countryman". His voice has such raw emotion that it can tear the listener's heart asunder, even when we are unable to understand his Pitjinjatjara language lyrics. He sings of love, travel, a sense of belonging and homesickness and the immense redemptive power of the songs on "Countryman" is repeated here on "Uncle". "I'll Be Back Soon" and "One Lonely Night" are two heartfelt songs that stand out immediately.

Frank is no slouch on the guitar, having as a small child absorbed his father Isaac's finger techniques. A batch of new street names were recently gazetted in Canberra to celebrate icons of Australian music. In amongst Amphlett Street, Slim Dusty Circuit, O'Keefe Avenue and Bronhill St is Yamma Way, to celebrate Isaac's contribution to Australian music. The elder Yamma regularly took his boys touring with him as he performed his popular indigenous language take on Country & Western music. So Frank is a natural performer from way back and it's great to see him at the top of his game and enjoying such well-earned success around the globe.

From the opening caws of a crow and the first bars of "A Blackman's Crying", to the unmistakeable early morning bush sounds of "Beginning of The Day", and the laughing kookaburra on the Cd's languid instrumental closer "Sunday Morning", we know exactly where we are - right in the dead centre of this land, going walkabout with Frank, which is what he dreams of doing when he's not busy touring  There's a quirky take on "Todd Mall" in Adelaide and a rolling, uptempo, joyful "Everybody's Talking" along the way.

While "Countryman" was something of a stripped-back classic, "Uncle" is much more of a polished, ensemble record. Apart from Bridie's deft touch on keyboards and production, there is the emotive cello of My Friend The Chocolate Cake musician Helen Mountfort plus contributions from leading Australian musicians Bart Willoughby, Michael Barker and Selwyn Burns. But it's that voice, that pain, those chords that ultimately get you every time.






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Layla McCalla "Vari-Colored Songs"

For a debut album by a young musician who is not overly well-known, "Vari-Colored Songs" by Leyla McCalla is a surprisingly mature release, perhaps because of her diverse influences and experiences.

Born in New York City to Haitian emigrant parents, Leyla grew up in New Jersey. When she was 8 she told her parents she wanted to learn cello and by the time she was in her teens, she knew she wanted to be a professional musician. As a teenager, she spent a couple of years in Accra, Ghana before returning to New York to complete a degree in cello performance and chamber music at NYU.

After college, she moved to New Orleans and, armed with Bach's Cello Suites, played on the streets in the French Quarter to earn a crust. She describes her move to New Orleans as the best decision she ever made. She felt instantly at home and it was there that she met the Carolina Chocolate Drops, with whom she toured for two and a half years. She regards this experience as her Master's qualification, teaching her how to do interviews and perform on the radio, and how to take care of herself when constantly on the road.

She has developed a sound with her cello that is totally unique - apart from using the bow, she strums it, finger-picks it and smacks the body for percussion. Which brings us to this debut CD. The album, which has been several years in the making, was given a push after a successful Kickstarter campaign in which she surpassed her $5,000 goal by four times to ultimately raise over $20,000. It consists of compositions she has written to Langston Hughes poetry, Haitian folk songs and original pieces. When Leyla was 16 her father gave her a book of the poetry of Langston Hughes, iconic African American poet. She was also inspired by Hughes' two auto-biographies and she describes him as having "a beautiful way of bringing complex ideas and history and culture into words that are very human and very simple and very-relatable."

 There are many different moods evoked by the songs on this CD, from the dark introspective tones of "Girl", "Too Blue" and "Kamen Sa W Fe?" to up-tempo uplifting Haitian folk songs sung in the pidgin French of her parents' homeland, such as "Mesi Bondye", "Manman Mwen", "Latibonit" and "Rose Marie". The playing is always exquisite, with Rhiannon Giddens and Hubby Jenkins of the Carolina Chocolate Drops along for the ride, as well as New Orleans’ own Don Vappie on tenor banjo and Luke Winslow King on guitar. They all complement McCalla's own talents so well. But the standout piece is the opener, one of the Langston Hughes poems set to music called "Heart of Gold". It features a number of over-dubbed cello parts and simply gorgeous vocals by McCalla.