The Khoury Project - Revelation

First published in fRoots issue 382, April 2015

The Khoury Project
Revelation
Enja Records (64 mins)

Over the past year or so, there has been a real glut of great Middle Eastern/North African jazz albums – recent records by Hijaz, Majid Bekkas Trio and L’Hijâz’Car have set the bar high. Now, Revelation by the Khoury Project can join their ranks.

The core members of the ensemble are the Jordanian Brothers Khoury – Basil, Osama and Elia – who bring violin, qanun and oud, respectively. For this project they are joined by double bass and jazz and Arabic percussion.

The elegance of the Khoury Project’s compositions is evident from the off, with the imaginatively-titled opener 'Intro' an intricate qanun solo with Arabic melody above complex chords that bring to mind ballad-jazz pianists. As the album continues, the group’s nuance becomes apparent: all the core elements of Arabic classical music and jazz are retained, meaning that their combination with each other seems so natural that at times one can forget that the traditions are from opposite sides of the world.

There are also other themes explored throughout the album, with a couple of pieces reflecting flamenco (especially their version of Paco de Lucía’s 'Zyryab', recorded live in Paris), and these additional influences are handled with ease. It’s a difficulty to pick a highlight from this record, the pieces are consistent and all seem to have equal value to the album as a whole.

Is there something about Arabic music or jazz that make their fusions so often successful? It just seems to work. Take nothing away from these musicians though: it is a combination that requires knowledge of many musical languages as well as virtuosity, and Revelation is another great example of this.

Sonido Vegetal - Las Bases del Razonamiento

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 107, April/May 2015.

Sonido Vegetal
Las Bases del Razonamiento
Maldito Digital (40 mins)

For the most part, Sonido Vegetal seem to be part of the great line of Spanish ska-punk bands, with all the raucous energy and tones of psychedelia that that entails, but their own style also draws from Eastern European gypsy music. It’s a great combination executed with natural ease, the horn section switching freely between typical ska blasts and the pumping of Balkan brass.

As could be expected with a punk-gypsy mix, there are hints of the band’s spiritual siblings Gogol Bordello – former Bordellian Oren Kaplan makes several appearances throughout the album – but Sonido Vegetal’s dedication to Latin ska gives them their unique sound.

Every track here feels interesting and different, due to each having a slightly different twist, from the dubout of ‘El Hormiguero’ to the surf-rock of ‘De Nada’. Flamenco is also explored, with the title track examining the connections between the Spanish and Balkan gypsy styles, all in a punk-friendly timeframe of 2:40.

This album does what all ska-punk aims to do – it brings a great big noise that’s perfect to jump around to. The gypsy elements (both Balkan and Spanish) could stand to be explored more thoroughly, but an album this fun is its own reward.

The Ghana Bigshots - Tu Na Me Nsa

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 107, April/May 2015.

The Ghana Bigshots
Tu Na Me Nsa
Goethe Institut (40 mins)

The Ghana Bigshots were originally founded as the University of Ghana’s house band, and this release is supported by the Goethe Institut with the aim of preserving and continuing live music in Africa. Elsewhere, this could seem a fairly dry and academic venture, but in Ghana with the Bigshots, dry is not an option.

This 17-strong band includes musicians of many styles, but their music flows naturally. A comparison that comes to mind is that of a Ghanaian Orchestra Baobab: although most of their songs have their roots in Ghana’s folk traditions, the Bigshots’ music includes a healthy dose of Cuban son as well as their own country’s highlife. The album also has hints of Afrobeat, rumba lingala and township jive - the latter especially prevalent in the aptly-named highlight ‘Dance Music’. On top of this, the band’s two balafons add an edge to this overall sound, their harsh buzz cutting through the group’s otherwise clean tones.

While the English-language lyrics are not the most profound you’ll ever hear, and the music doesn’t break any major new ground, this is an enjoyable first album, with summery sounds and rhythms made for dancing – you can’t go wrong!

Jaume Compte Nafas Ensemble - Tariq

First published in fRoots issue 381, March 2015

Jaume Compte Nafas Ensemble
Tariq
ARC Music Productions (48 mins)

So, here’s another album aiming to draw comparisons between Iberian, Arabic and other Mediterranean music using fusion. Ho hum. But wait! In Tariq, multi-instrumentalist Jaume Compte and the Nafas Ensemble have made an album that doesn’t abide by the same overused template of flamenco plus oud and darbuka. Instead, they use the various genres from around the Mediterranean as a starting point to making a style that is their own, and end up with some beautiful art music.

The album’s sound is mostly based around Western strings, which take in the Arabic, Spanish and Greek influences together with a Western classical sensibility and put out a beautiful, effortless blend of it all. These strings provide the base upon which different flavours are variously added – accordeon, Iranian kamancheh, Spanish and Catalan vocals, glimpses of Indian music and breezes of Balkan – while Compte adds guitars, oud, bouzouki and all manner of percussion and ambient sound effects to round off the textures. These interchanging layers give each piece its own identity and create what feels like a story that flows through the whole album.

It’s so refreshing to hear an album that approaches the Iberio-Arab fusion with sensitivity, class and originality. At a time when this sort of fusion seems to be very much in vogue, it is for these very reasons that Tariq and the Jaume Compte Nafas Ensemble stand out from the crowd.

Temenik Electric - Ouesh Hada?

First published in fRoots issue 381, March 2015

Temenik Electric
Ouesh Hada?
Nomad Café Productions (37 mins)

Marseille has long been known as a hotbed of North African culture in France, with many French-Arab subcultures having their genesis in the city. It’s not surprising, then, that a band such as Temenik Electric would flourish in such an environment.

With members from France and across North Africa, Temenik Electric create Maghrebi rock, but go much further than the sounds of pioneer Rachid Taha or more recent groups such as Speed Caravan by using elements of electronica, dub and blues together with many distinct North African styles from Algerian raï to Hassaniya music of the Western Sahara to create an intense but body-moving piece of work.

Although they’re often described as ‘Electric Gnawa’, the music of Ouesh Hada? does not contain too many obvious elements of the Afro-Moroccan style; there are no guimbri lutes, and rarely the sound of the metal castanets, the qaraqab. However, the album’s loping rhythms and extended sections of repetition that put you into a semi-trance before you fully realise what’s happened really does create the essence of gnawa that pervades each track. Despite the use of oud, nay, heavily distorted guitars, all manner of synths, and some deep percussionscapes, the gnawa infusion feels perfectly natural – a testament to the musicians who create such a nuanced style.

Ouesh Hada? is an outstanding album: perfect to rock out to, but also to lose yourself in. Play loud and fall into the groove of Temenik Electric!

James Adams - Sin Aperture

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 106, March 2015.

James Adams
Sin Aperture
Self-released (56 mins)

Well this is a strange album. Sin Aperture is the debut album of London-based self-styled ‘adventure musician’ James Adams. It boasts 52 musicians of 16 nationalities (and recorded in 15 different countries) and brings together ‘flamenco, African blues, hip-hop, jazz, funk, Balkan, Arabia and Western classical music.’ How can such a mix work? Well…

The thing is, it does contain some properly enjoyable tracks – the opener, for example, is a lovely cello quartet with viola – and a lot of the pieces do contain some great elements – a floaty jazz singer here, a funky Balkan brass band there and a head-nodding rap somewhere else.

The problem is that there’s no consistency in the album at all. Almost every track sounds completely different and the effect is very jarring; one calm and introspective acoustic piece can give way to glitchy dancefloor electronica to the unfortunate detriment of both.

The end product is a hyperactive and quite pretentious album. A shame, because there is definite potential buried in here.

C.W. Stoneking - Gon’ Boogaloo

First published in Songlines Magazine issue 106, March 2015.

C.W. Stoneking
Gon’ Boogaloo
King Hokum Records (41 mins)

Australian bluesman C.W. Stoneking’s last album, Jungle Blues, made the international scene sit up and take notice. The mix of the old styles – blues, calypso, boogie – held together by vaudevillian wit and that straight-out-of-the-20s voice felt refreshingly real, even if his stories were tall. That was in 2008.

Since then, he’s been working on something different – with Gon’ Boogaloo, Stoneking goes electric, but this is no ‘Judas’ moment. Accompanying himself on a Fender Jazzmaster guitar throughout, he’s shifted slightly from hokum and calypso, looking instead towards the birth of electric blues, gospel and jump blues: think Elmore James, Blind Willie Johnson and Louis Jordan. His group has changed too – gone are the horns, leaving bass, drums and four female backing singers, who work to give a nice bright contrast to Stoneking’s rounded-off voice.

From the laid-back cheeriness of ‘Goin’ Back South’ to ‘The Zombie’, a piece so dark it must surely become a Halloween staple, Stoneking covers a whole range of atmospheres and emotions on the album, but with all tracks doused in the same sense of humour and mastery of the genre that makes him special.

So, after six years, does Gon’ Boogaloo live up to the wait? You bet.