Saturday, July 11, 2009

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So Kalmery – Brakka System (Pygmalian Records/ Select Audio Visual)

Posted: 11 Jul 2009 03:56 AM PDT

Congo blues folk artist So Kalmery has a light acoustic feel to his music, a kind’ve Jack Johnson lightness, these warm subtle at times funky grooves coming from his acoustic guitar. It’s music for good times that lifts the spirits, yet also contains a strong socio political message. He sings in Swahilli and at times English in his own Brakka system, ‘Bra,’ means the first and ‘ka’ means infinity and also the mind. The approach is part musical technique, part philosophy, not sure what the additional ‘k’ is there for however. HIs music is borne out of an East African tradition linked with more current day blues, folk, reggae and pop influences. Previously he’s played with Papa Wemba, and this album is his first for seven years. On Brakka System he’s at his best on the more stripped down pieces such as Kamitik soul, where he asks ‘will we stand alone when we don’t believe we can?’ (in English), in a subtle late night acoustic ballad. His personal story though is horrific, orphaned at the age of 7 when his father was assasinated due to his close ties to the independence movement and this resulted in some displacement for the young Kalmery, traveling through Africa and ultimately Europe. It may be too easy, but you feel like you can hear the myriad of influences in the music of the well travelled Kalmery, which defies easy categorisation, yet also lacks any kind of edge.

-Bob Baker Fish

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Evan Miller – Beeswax Ephemera (Preservation)

Posted: 11 Jul 2009 05:20 AM PDT

It’s hard not to get excited from the very first moments of Iowa guitarist Evan Miller’s latest album because it suggests some kind of Midwestern spirituality, a kind of fingerpickin countrified zen. Suit of Flowers is an acoustic raga that plays out for over seven minutes alongside some enlightened peaceful vocal drones. They’re worlds that rarely meet, a kind’ve east meets very west, and this juxtaposition adds an additional layer of exoticism to an album that works on long hypnotic structures, and mesmirising webs of acoustic guitar. Whilst the remainder of the pieces are mostly solo unaccompanied guitar, you can’t shake the transcendent feel, like Suit of Flowers was placed at the beginning to explicitly send us in this direction and the rest of the pieces manage to keep us there in a much subtler fashion. I can hear links to Jim O’Rourke’s Bad Timing, particularly on The Twigs, and there’s a definite affinity with the finger picking genius of John Fahey, though Miller’s playing is incredibly distinctive and it’s a really unfair to use outside influences to describe his music. He uses delay and loops, though his playing has a rare kind of subtle grace best exhibited on the ten minute Honey Loop. In keeping with its stripped down nature it’s not a surprise to learn that this album was originally recorded on 4-track and released as a handmade tour album. It’s probably one of the most centred albums I’ve ever heard, there’s a peacefulness at its core, a relaxed timelessness that you could never hope to achieve in a studio. Then out comes another hint, a cover of I Will Turn Your Money Green from country blues legend Furry Lewis complete with vocals and the zen vocal drones which return for an expansive rock out with (gasp) electric guitars. It’s at this point you begin to realise that Miller defies easy categorisation, rather he opens up a world within his finger picking, with his acoustic plucking and as he carries you along bewitched, maybe even hypnotised and you realise that all you need to do is allow yourself to fall in, because ultimately transcendence awaits.

Bob Baker Fish

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For Danielle Baquet-Long * 1983-2009

Posted: 10 Jul 2009 07:34 PM PDT

dani

Although I only knew Dani through a back door, through the music that sounded through her and her husband, Will, my heart sank upon hearing of her death. As Celer, Will and Dani acted with fresh instinct and sincere impulse. I join others in sending my condolences to her family and friends. Her efforts will be kept close, and remembered fondly.

“It is dawn. Has this lamp, then, finished
Its task of hope, hand placed
In the clouded mirror, on the fever
Of the one who kept watch, not knowing how to die?

But it is true that he has not put it out,
It still burns for him, in spite of the sky.
The seagulls screech their soul at your frost-covered
Window, morning sleeper, boat from another river.”

- Yves Bonnefoy

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at 5:34 PM